Priority: Retirement
by ronixdhayes
Summary: The Reapers are gone and the galaxy is recovering from its destruction. Shepard and Garrus move back to Citadel to resume life without the constant threat of destruction, but things are not so simple as Garrus's new squad uncovers thick conspiracies within C Sec which threaten not only the station, but his new family as well.
1. Retrieval

Chapter 1

The rubble crashes down, nearly crushing down on the small soldier. The platform is massive, but barely still together after the Crucible was activated. The small woman uses a biotic push to toss aside the debris, but still cannot completely free herself. Her armor is badly damaged, with her iconic red stripe barely recognizable from its wounds. She quickly reactivates her helmet, fearing the failure of the quickly assembled life support.

She activates her com link, giving her a direct link to the Normandy: "Shepard to Normandy, do you copy?" She is surprised to hear how stable she can make her voice sound, despite the fact that she may have just accidentally destroyed the way the galaxy functioned as she knew it.

"Normandy to Shepard; we copy loud and clear." She smiles slightly to hear Joker's voice back on the line. In the background she can hear another round of cheers from her on deck crew; that means that at least some of them had survived.

"Requesting medical extraction. Get me out of here." She says emotionlessly, taking advantage of the authority she had been using for the past few years.

"Medical extraction? Are you alright?" Garrus's voice crackles through the line with a level of concern in his voice that does not seem possible given the severity of his own injuries.

"I'll be fine, but I really rather not be stuck on this station when it deteriorates." Shepard applies her last Medi-gel, but it does not completely seal the gaping wound in her side.

"I'll go get you myself." Garrus declares. "We'll be there as soon as we can." It is not his call, but she knows that no one will fight him, not now anyways.

"Extraction en route. Expect pickup in eleven minutes." Edi's voice cracks through.

This confuses the Commander. The Catalyst told her that all synthetic life would be destroyed; this would have definitely have destroyed the AI. She cannot see any more signs of the Reapers, even though she was able to see the fleets fighting for their lives just moments before. The Reapers must be gone, at least in this nebula. But, the fact that the AI is still functioning indicates that the Catalyst must be wrong about at least a few things. For the sake of the status quo in the galaxy, she hopes that the death toll was simply far smaller than anticipated.

She uses the little strength that she has left to perform another force push to remove the rest of the debris off of her. She uses the pile beside her to force herself to her feet, even though she is sure that something is broken. She limps down the walkway to where Anderson's body lies; he cannot be left here alone after all that he did to give Earth a fighting chance. She plops herself beside him, struggling to adjust his form so that he would look less pained when he is brought home to be mourned by those who know the depth of his contributions. If she had enough energy, she would even fix the Illusive Man so he would look less pitiful than he was for no other reason than she knows that she rather not be known as a killer, but his is one life that she does not regret ending.

Shepard can hear the shuttle touch down on the edge of the station, exactly where she arrived hours earlier. She focuses her attention its direction to see which of her crew would be able to help her. She immediately identifies her favorite Turian's armor, but it takes her far too long to focus in on Tali's form behind him.

Garrus arrives slowly, hiding his new limp from her. He clearly had some treatment, but obviously left before it could be completed. "Shepard?" He calls for her, aiming to confirm her survival.

"Garrus." Her voice is weak, but she is sure that he can hear her. Tali rushes over to Anderson and confirms that he is dead, but slings him over her shoulders anyways.

"It's all over now." He says as he approaches.

It is not quite true; there is going to be fallout from the Reapers. Almost every nebula in the galaxy needs help rebuilding from the damage of battle. People are going to try to sell parts of the Reapers for years to come making a new set of illegal weapon trades to deal with. Krogan will need regulation with the new spike in population. The council is going to need restructuring. The Citadel is likely going to need to be completely rebuilt. But in a way, he is right. There is no longer a constant threat to end life as they know it.

Shepard struggles to remain focused on anything, so she fixes her gaze on his heavily scarred face as her vision begins to fade. The one face she knows better than her own, and the only Turian that she would ever invite into her cabin.

He applies another application of Medi-gel, but she is still in rough shape. He notices, but dare not comment. The Turian lifts her, putting an arm under her knees and the other beneath her shoulders. She appreciates how small she is in his arms and lets herself embrace the deep sleep that she desperately needs to recover.


	2. Waiting

Chapter 2

Garrus sits beside the Commander's hospital bed for the third day straight. Huerta Memorial Hospital was low on supplies, but with the constant threat gone they had no problem prioritizing the care of the savior of the galaxy as the new medical supplies arrive from some of the now vacant colonies. She needed surgery, but otherwise her prospects were good. Dr. Chakwas personally checked on Shepard's injuries herself, even testing each cybernetic implant herself. No one was concerned that she was still out, given her mental exhaustion and the standard recovery of her type of injuries. Garrus still remained locked to her side, accidentally obeying the demands of his own doctor to take it easy.

Garrus grabs his tablet to alert the family of the last surviving member of the Normandy crew of their survival. He logs into Shepard's extranet account—he had learned her password months ago but thus far had not tried to use it. He will beg for her forgiveness when she wakes up if he needs to, but he does not know how to contact Captain Shepard otherwise:

 _Hello Cpt. Hannah Shepard,_

 _I am sorry to report that I am not Commander Shepard, but rather her squad mate Garrus Vakarian. I know you rather hear this from your daughter herself, but she is still recovering from her injuries, but by all accounts will be completely recovered shortly. She has not yet waken up, but given the extent of her injuries it is not concerning. I will ensure that she contacts you personally after she does wake._

 _I hope this finds you well,_

 _Garrus Vakarian_

He attaches his extranet contact information to the email if she has more questions, before logging back into his own account. According to the report, his family has returned to Palevan to lead the restoration efforts, but there is so much to do that it will be years before there is any real comfort to life on the home world. Sol and Castis have yet to update him on their arrival, but they are fine. The Extranet has in theory been completely restored to all planets, but his family simply could be too busy to respond to his alerts. Still, he sends them another message to check on them. They did not always see eye to eye, but now that everyone's lives have been in far more danger than they ever have been in before, it is time to start over, to rebuild the most basic connections.

As soon as he returns to his inbox, there is a message from Captain Shepard waiting for him. He opens it, preparing to read the message to the unconscious commander, but after reading the first few lines he knows it is directed primarily to him:

 _Hello Lt. Garrus Vakarian,_

 _I am glad to hear that my daughter is okay, but after her last two suicide missions went without a single causality I was not concerned. But, for a squad member to go to all of the trouble to make sure that his commander's mother is contacted about her survival, there must be a far deeper relationship than being just a 'squad mate'. You wouldn't happen to be the Turian that my daughter was seen tangoing at Citadel a couple of weeks ago? Plus, she may have mentioned a dalliance the last few times that we spoke, which were not close together. Thank you for the update either way._

 _Cpt. Hannah Shepard_

The Turian smirks, processing the news presented to him. He was caught; apparently their cross species liaison was intergalactic news. They could have been the ideal distraction before; the saviors of the galaxy managed to find love in the middle of their quest to save everything they had ever known. He is torn between finding this endearing and annoying, but settles on both.

Garrus plans a reply, but takes a while to draft a response that meets his standards, but ends up typing in circles. He could handle the end of the world and the near destruction of his planet, but responding to an email daunts him for no other reason than he has no idea what to expect for a response.

 _My apologies Cpt. Shepard,_

 _I had no intention of covering up or hiding my relationship with Commander Shepard. I was not sure what she had told you and did not want to say anything before she did. In truth, I have been on her team for the past two years, and once before she was spaced. For the better part of these two years, we have been courting. Technically speaking, we have been living together for the past year, as much as you can on a frigate. I intend on continuing our relationship, so long as she still will still have me._

 _Lt. Garrus Vakarian_

The Turian does not have time to log off before he gets a reply:

 _If that is the case, take care of her. I trust she is in good hands._

 _Hannah_

He smiles and starts trying to unwind by optimizing an old code he had stashed away for improved targeting on the Normandy. Despite the fact that he is not sure what is next for him, he knows he cannot sit idly by, even when he is just supposed to be recovering. There is nothing that he can do now, or at least wants to do, until he knows that the commander, the person he respects the most in the galaxy, knows that she is the sole reason that everyone on the Normandy, everyone on the Citadel, and everyone left in the galaxy is still living and able to rebuild their lives to something better than what existed before.


	3. Awake

Chapter 3

Sheppard wakes up groggily after a nap that took far too long. She focuses carefully on her surroundings and recognizes it as the very room where Alenko recovered from his own injuries. Garrus sits beside her, updating logs on his tablet. It is odd to see him out of his armor outside of the cabin. He seems relaxed, deep into some level of coding that she could never comprehend, especially not when she is trying to pull together her missing thoughts. She glances out the window; the Citadel seems to be oddly recovered. Yes there was debris, but it was negligible compared to the damage she had seen on other planets. Life almost seems normal out on the Presidium.

"How long have I been out?" Shepard asks as she slowly sits up. Her armor was removed, but she is still in her usual base layer.

"Ten days." He perks up as soon as she speaks. "How are you feeling?"

"Like hell. At least I'm not up at the bar." She jokes slightly, but forces herself to her feet. Garrus jumps to his feet to help her, but she does not use his assistance; she merely grabs his arm affectionately as she starts to stretch out. "How's your leg?" She asks as she struggles to even get her arms halfway up to the shoulders.

"Fine. I may not be dancing anytime soon though." He responds. She continues to stretch, awkwardly moving each muscle to make her feel somewhat more normal. He eventually clears his throat to give the next update; "I took the liberty of updating Captain Shepard on your status. I told her you would contact her when you woke up. Also I have to apologize—I had to log into your email to get ahold of her."

"That's fine—although I doubt she was worried." Shepard slowly moves her arms up to tie her hair back up into her standard tight bun, to start to pull herself together. After years of working on the front lines and taking every mission that is put on the Alliance priority docket, Captain Shepard could no longer afford to worry. Worrying would only increase her anxiety and not remedy any of the situation. "How is the rest of the crew?"

"No casualties. The Normandy is docked and waiting for your next order." He reports. "Your injuries were the worst on the ship."

"What about Edi?" Shepard clarifies.

"She's fine."

"What about the relays?" She looks for more clarification.

"They were damaged but are largely operational. Salarian and Quarian teams are working to get them all up to working order. Javik and Liara, last I heard, were translating Prothean documents to optimize them to prevent this kind of damage from happening again. I am not sure that anything will ever compare to the power that the Crucible had, but still, it is best to fortify." The Turian watches her every move, making sure that he cannot find any severe issues. The more she moves, the more apparent it is to him that she will be fine.

"What next?" She notices the shower in the attached bathroom and heads over before anyone can stop her.

"The Council and Hackett have requested video audience with you. Then I am sure that the crew would like to see that their faithful commander is alright." Garrus reports. "I'm glad to see you awake." He adds with a softness to his voice that he only has around her.

"I'm glad of it too. I was not expecting so much good news." The Catalyst was not perfect, but its imperfections gave it better results than she could have ever hoped for. "Have you heard from your family yet?" She yells from the shower, but leaves the door open to continue the conversation.

"Yes, they messaged me yesterday. They are already on Palevan working on restoration. Most of the planet is in ruins, but we can start over. Sol is being sent wherever they need medics, but my father is organizing the reconstruction teams on world. They are completely fine though."

"That's good to hear Garrus. It seems that everything is recovering well." She turns off the water, prompting the Turian to throw her a towel. Despite the fact that he had seen her naked several times, he still politely averts his gaze.

"That's all thanks to you Shepard—if it weren't for you there would be nothing to rebuild and no one to move on."

She grabs the pile of clothes waiting for her on the counter. Thankfully it is her usual Alliance uniform. "Garrus?"

He turns his head towards her but does not respond.

"Please just call me Katherine when we are alone. I'm tired of being Commander Shepard all of the time." She says earnestly as she slides her arms around his waist, allowing her arms to rest on the crooks of his hips.

"Katherine." He repeats it to himself a few more times just to make sure that he does not forget. He heard it a few times before, but always assumed it was off limits. "Well, Katherine, when you have a moment, we have a couple of things that we need to attend to ourselves."

"Well that is something to look forward to while I deal with the Council and Alliance." She kisses him on the cheek as she heads out the building. He tails behind a step or two, not questioning her decision to leave the hospital without medical advisement.


	4. Normandy

Chapter 4

Garrus hides in his old post in the main battery while Shepard continues her errands around the Citadel. Since Udina's betrayal, there was no one coordinating the resource coming or going from the human colonies so she was stuck dealing with the politics. Tali sits with him, resting on the currently unused machinery as she tries to get any information she can. Tali did not care that he was obviously hiding; she merely continued to pester and shoot questions at him.

"Did she mention anything about how she made all of the Reapers in the galaxy drop dead at once? There was just a flash of light and, boom, they are all down. She has to tell us what happened in the Crucible. Did she at least tell you what the plans are for after this? I really have no idea what could be interesting after the past couple of years." Tali continues to reword her questions over and over again, trying to trip him up, but he has nothing to possibly offer up.

"Tali, usually I find your antics endearing but can you please let me focus." Garrus clumsily tries to shape a fine piece of metal but fails to get the desired delicate shape he wanted. He specialized in making the ship work well, but he never had to make his own pieces. He struggles but he manages to get close to his desired shapes with a metal file he had Tali salvage from engineering.

"You know, it would be easier to make if you chose a softer metal to work with. Palladium would have worked." Tali says as she sips on a Turian brandy.

"Just be quiet. Platinum is supposed to be the best, so I am using platinum." Garrus retorts.

"Says who? They look almost identical." Tali badgers.

"My research says platinum is preferred because of its increased durability." Garrus grumbles.

"Yes, but if you use an alloy it could be almost as strong."

"If you insist on staying over here, could you at least warn me if anyone else comes to pester me?" Garrus snaps, but the Quarian is still amused.

"If you tell me what she told you." Tali bargains.

"She did not tell me anything. She asked about the crew and then got moving. It's the Commander; she won't unwind until she is either facing death in the face or sure that there is nothing else to do."

"That can't be true. She tells you absolutely everything; always has, even back when we were fighting Saren." Tali continues.

"Well it is." He retorts. "She seems to be uneasy about something, but I can't quite put my finger on it."

"You know, you don't have to be hiding. Just say you are making a new gasket for the cooling system. Only five people on the whole ship would know that we don't have anything that needs a gasket that small. Well I guess even for those five people you could say that you are trying to add something to one of the systems or modifying the intake on one of them." Tali continues to rant. "Either way, I suppose Edi would try to out you and then figure out what you are doing and mistakenly bring up to Joker, and then the whole ship would know."

"Tali. How can I help?" The robotic voice crackles from the corner of the room.

Garrus freezes up as Tali begins to speak. "Yes, is Shepard back on the ship yet?" Garrus glares at the Quarian as he points the file at her.

"Checking." Edi logs off for a moment. "Commander Shepard is currently in the airlock. Joker requests that all personnel report to the command center for a welcome back celebration. "

"You better put that away. You never know who can put two and two together around here, although I still don't get why you won't just buy one." Tali says simply as she hops off of her perch and heads down the hall.

"I'll just ignore that for now."

The two original aliens on Alliance ship slide into an elevator with about fifteen of the human crew. When before they typically would give the outsiders a wide berth, they now had no problem bumping shoulders with the odd residents. The Reaper War had at least one positive outcome; no one really cared about species so long as they fought to protect their planets.

The Command Center quickly develops a crowd. Vega nods at the alien duo signaling them to wait with him and Cortez. Javik and Liara inch over while Alenko is still stranded in the throws of the rest of the crew.

As soon as Shepard steps out of the airlock the crew lets out a stream of hollers. She smiles confidently, holding her form as the first human Specter and the Commander who managed to destroy the Reapers.

She clears her throat to get the attention of the crew for her big speech that everyone had come to expect out of her. "We have exceeded expectations in the eyes of both the Alliance and the Council. I could not be more proud. We have worked tirelessly the past two years nonstop to fight the Reapers, even when no one else believed that they existed, putting our lives on hold while we do."

"I know that everyone here has lost someone, and I cannot thank you enough for all of the work that you do here, regardless of your roles. Regardless if you were on the ground or air support, none of this could be done without your seamless support and teamwork."

"Now the hard part is done. The next part is the long part; restoration. For this, I have decided that the crew should temporarily disband to help on your respective home-worlds. The Normandy will forever remain a symbol of galactic peace, but now you all may start six months of paid leave to recover from the stress that this entails. I have already had Edi coordinate your schedules for when you will be back with your families. If you wish to go elsewhere, please speak with her."

"It has been an honor working as the Captain of this ship and to work with such a coordinated crew like yourselves. You are all assets that we essential for ending this war and your sacrifices were never in vain. Thank you for your service." She salutes the crew before she heads up to her cabin before they can really react to her praise.


	5. Planning

Chapter 5

Garrus takes the elevator up to Shepard's cabin. Aside from the commander herself, only he also has access to her quarters. This is their personal sanctuary from the fighting, from the end of the world, and the politics of their lives in general. The room is rarely ever a mess, holding only the carefully mounted collection of model ships that Shepard had accumulated through years of travel, and the helmet of her old uniform, from before she died. The worst he has seen the room was with an unmade bed and a bottle of wine on the coffee table. Even so, the impeccable tidiness suited her and because of this, the pristine room still felt like home.

Shepard is laying out on the couch with her head hanging over the arm. He never had a real preference for humans, but there was always something alluring about the gentle slope of the collarbone. That was his truest weakness, despite the fact that she assumed that he was a fan of the same assets that humans seemed to appreciate. He knew it all fairly well, in part due to the many vids and the directed stares Shepard got from the opposite sex.

Still, he could appreciate her softness. He had been with his fair share of Turians throughout his younger years, but none of them felt as nice when curled up against his scaled chest and bony hips. She never seemed to mind any of it either. She never complained when he accidentally stabbed her with his calf, or when he scratched her with his elbow, nor did she care that his kiss would never be as tender as what she could get from a human. She seems to only have eyes for him, but he still worried that she would have to sacrifice too much to stay with him.

Regardless, he bends down to kiss her inverted form. She rests her hand on the side of his face with a wordless look that she had anytime she was feeling extra appreciative. He slides himself beside her and she leans herself against him. "You've been busy."

"Now that the fate of the galaxy is no longer in question it is all politics. I figured the crew would appreciate some time on world and Hackett was desperate for able bodies to work on rebuilding the colonies so getting the crew paid leave was easy enough." She explains. "For once, even the Council seemed appreciative but they still complained that it took so long for us to get a resolution. They want me to find a replacement for Councilor Udina. No candidates have made themselves apparent yet, so I have to read through a stack of candidate files. So I will not be getting any real time off myself."

Garrus keeps his face expressionless. "I wonder why Alenko doesn't have to deal with the council structure—it seems that he would be as capable."

"They don't trust him as he was Udina's pick. I then spent the rest of my afternoon urging them to appoint more species to the council, namely the Krogan and Quarian to start, but ideally all major species should be represented." She explains with a tinge of annoyance to her voice. Despite her position and the regard that the council claims to have for her, they always manage to completely ignore her recommendations, even though she has yet to lead them wrong. After their contributions to ending the war, she was sure that they had proven their worth. Unfortunately, the Council did not agree.

"Yes, well, I think it will take time to get the Vorcha to organize enough of a government to be thoroughly involved with council matters." Garrus sits himself so Shepard can rest her head in his lap, a motion that he was never sure why she found comfortable, but it was nice to so easily be able to play with her long red hair that he always found so fascinating.

"I am not sure if they are a major species quite yet, but they should at least be given an opportunity to prove themselves. Maybe the Vorcha aren't quite ready, but every species that offered a fleet or resources to the Reaper war deserves a position on the Council."

"That would include the Geth." Garrus points out.

"I never claimed it would be easy. I only claimed that it would be the right move. The Geth fought with us, even working with the Quarians. Their input would allow for a view that organic life forms may not even consider, plus they would be useful for helping reestablish colonies of all species. I'm sure even Tali would understand that."

"It seems that you have put a lot of thought into this." He points out.

"Something good needs to come out of this war—I think a unified galaxy would be appropriate." She says.

"So what will you do next?" He asks carefully.

She focuses on him, eyes pleading for clarification.

"Where are you heading off to next? There is so much to do and I'm sure you have thought out how you want to do them. But something must be first."

"Actually, that is up to you. We could even go to Palevan to help with the reconstruction." Shepard says. "I can fight with the Council anywhere and the last couple years you—and everyone else—have dropped everything to follow my lead. I am far too happy to give the power to someone else for a while."

"You aren't going to just go back home to Earth?" Garrus asks.

"Earth isn't home—wherever you are is where I'll be home. There is no Shepard without Vakarian."

He bends down and kisses her forehead; he was right. She really had no intention of going anywhere without him. "As much as I would like to go back to Palevan, humans are about as welcome as Turians are on Earth. I think staying on Citadel would not be a bad idea. I may have to swallow my pride and go back to C Sec, but that won't be the worst thing I have had to deal with lately."

Shepard smiles. "Alright. Sounds like a plan."


	6. Partying

Chapter 6

"So who would win in a fight—Jack or Grunt?" Vega tosses out to the group after his fourth beer. The crew ended up congregating to the Pork Observation deck to make use of the bar that had been largely unused since they left Earth. The most regular occupant was the young Quarian, who only recently determined how much she enjoyed the only thing that she could share with the crew. The night was relatively young, with the conversation relatively polite, and the only person completely drunk being Tali, who had started drinking hours ago.

"Using biotics, guns, or hand to hand combat? Different scenarios may have far different outcomes." Traynor asks for clarification. After the last gathering she had decided to refrain from drinking. She, along with Alenko, Cortez, Vega, and every member of the support staff, is disembarking on Earth when they arrive in the morning. The alien members of the crew, along with Shepard and Joker are making arrangements from Citadel when they get back.

"Everything but guns." He clarifies.

"Now that would be interesting." Garrus chuckles over a glass of brandy. "I give the edge to Jack. Grunt would be too predictable; she would do something tricky to throw him off guard making his typical strength attack useless."

"But I have seen that Krogan charge and Jack is small for a primitive. If she were to get hit straight on just once she would get knocked down." Javik, oddly enough, joined the festivities.

"Yes but I saw here break out of the most secure prison in the galaxy. Grunt may be angry but Jack's rage makes her strong enough to rip an YMIR in half." Tali adds.

"I'd rather see a fight between Miranda and Jack to be honest." Alenko comments.

"That would be a sight." Traynor says absent-mindedly, getting the attention of the humans in attendance. "Two powerful biotics with similar strength and ability would be more interesting as you can easily see who would be stronger. Same abilities makes it for a more interesting comparison."

"I was expecting a different response…" Alenko comments with a tinge of disappointment to his voice.

"Yeah, something that I would thoroughly get behind." Vega adds, getting a laugh out of most people in the group.

"Yes but not everyone uses people just for their bodies—although if I could I would. Some people actually want to settle down." Tali says.

"Yeah…but where exactly are we supposed to meet anyone? We spent the past few months on a ship preparing for war and now we will be spending the next few years rebuilding. Not exactly time for romance in that Sparks." Vega explains, surprisingly serious.

"Yes but the strongest relationships come from the most daunting circumstances." Liara inputs.

"Like you and Javik?" Tali says.

Liara blushes but does not dignify the comment. "Like Garrus and the Commander."

No one disagrees with the statement.

"Where are you two going next? Earth or Palevan?" Alenko asks. Despite his previous relationship with the Commander he seemed to be supportive since they went completely public.

"The Citadel actually—humans aren't really able to live on Palevan and Turians are not really able to live on Earth, so we will be on the Citadel. It will make working with the Council easier." Shepard responds.

"Plus I have not burned all of my bridges at C Sec yet so it should not be hard to get back into the swing of things."

"So you will really be settling into the Shepard-Vakarian Love nest…" Liara adds.

"Hey—do Turians get married?" Vega asks with his usual bluntness.

"Turians love their rules and order. We take marriage extremely seriously, but weddings, as humans refer to them, do not really happen. The bonding ceremony is always done in private. The clan only knows for sure that someone is a member of the clan when they show up one day with the proper markings. I suppose they could check for sure in the public records, but I am not sure they survived the Reaper attacks."

"Sounds oddly romantic." Tali says excitedly. "Although I am sure we'd rather see Shepard in a big white dress."

"Nah. Shepard would be more subdued and formal." Alenko conjectures.

"Nope. Big white dress, lots of flowers, and lots of guests." Shepard says. Everyone's eyes focus on her, expecting elaboration. "What? I had time for a lot of day dreaming growing up on ships. Never went to one though."

"Commander, you have a message from Urdnot Wrex." Edi's voice crackles in from the flight deck.

"I should go." Shepard says before heading to the elevator.

"So…anything you want to tell us Garrus?" Alenko asks.

"I have nothing to say."

"Come on…we need a bit of gossip to help motivate us through rebuilding our system and all of our colonies." Vega adds. "The last good love story on this ship ended with the death of a beloved husband and two kids—and we wouldn't want Esteban's tragic tale to be the best tale coming out of this ship."

"I will say nothing until I say something to her about it." Garrus declares.

"He has a hand-made ring in his pocket." Tali blurts out.

"Say whaaatt?" Vega whistles among the commotion of the crew.

"Tali I will puncture your suit." Garrus threatens.

"Hahaha go ahead! I get to recover on Rannoch and you will never get any of your Turian brandy back." Based on the nearly empty bottle in her hand Tali will not remember most of the conversation when she wakes up in the morning.

"Hey! This is exciting news that NO ONE IN THIS ROOM WILL POSSIBLY MENTION TO THE COMMANDER. We will celebrate early because all of us will be back on our world, but in exchange for our silence, we all have to get invited." Alenko declares, inciting another cheer from the crew.

"Fine, but I get shoot anyone who mentions anything to her. For now, who wants to play darts? I will only use my left hand, and my teammate will be Traynor to keep things even."


	7. Morning After

Chapter 7

Garrus wakes up well before Shepard, as he had every day since he permanently moved into her cabin. He was not sure if it was from Shepard's recovering mental exhaustion or simply a nature of the differences between Turians and humans, but it did not matter. He enjoyed the quiet moments where he could gaze upon her sleeping face, the only chance he would ever get to see her completely relaxed. He knows that they need a vacation, that they should prepare to retire, but he knows for a fact that can never happen.

He grabs his tablet from his claimed nightstand to see more notifications than he received after the Collectors were verified to be destroyed. He opens his inbox and notices that all of them are from the crew with some sort of 'Congratulations' as the subject line. He blanches, trying to fill in the blanks from the previous night but the last thing he can recall is Tali announcing to everyone on the ship that he had a ring in his pocket.

"Spirits no…" he clicks the first one from Alenko;

 _Congratulations on your engagement! In all the time that I have seen you two together it became obvious that you two make a far better pairing than myself and Shepard ever would have. I am excited for the both of you and wish you the best in your life to come._

 _Best_

 _Major Kaiden Alenko_

The Turian freezes up and immediately checks his pockets; the ring is still there. He quickly develops an image in his head of him drunkenly declaring that he would propose to Shepard as soon as next saw her. He scrolls through the list; even Javik sent a message. He quickly logs out of his account and enters Shepard's credentials.

"Good morning. Have you been up long?" She moves slowly, taking advantage of her loss of urgency. She stretches with her eyes closed, allowing Garrus the time to log back into his own account.

"No more than usual." He replies as he hides as many messages as he can before Shepard invariably checks up on him. She tosses on her Alliance uniform and ties her hair back in her usual tight bun. "Are you disembarking on Earth?"

"All of us are. Hackett's orders. I made the announcement last night but I am not sure how many of you remember it. It should not take long. He just wants to personally thank every member of the Normandy personally before we went our separate ways. We cannot be sure of when the crew will next be back together." She heads to her personal terminal.

"Well then, this may be our last opportunity to enjoy a nice meal with the crew. Your email can wait until after we get back on the ship—I am sure the crew rather get a last chance to relax with the hero of the galaxy." Garrus deflects her attention away from the screen.

"But I have sixty new messages…"

"I am sure that they are all just new reports of who survived the attacks or thank you notes for your service. They can wait. Plus none of these will be able to be solved on Earth."

She shrugs. "I supposed you are right, Reaper-Advisor Vakarian."

He smirks; he knows that she is teasing him, but he does not mind. He simply goes into the elevator with her. Despite the ability to go into hyperspace, the elevators have always been slow. Only after she hits the button for the mess hall does he realize that although he stopped the virtual congratulations, he could not stop them from talking to her in person. He slams the button for the flight deck.

She furrows her brow at him. "I thought you were coming with me."

"Sorry, I just remembered that Edi still had on the itinerary that I am going back to Palevan. I figured I should fix that as soon as possible." He lies quickly, hoping that he was at least slightly convincing for once.

"I suppose I can handle my own with a hungover staff. Just don't take too long—I believe you had a bet with Vega to see if Liara and Javik hooked up last night."

He does not even remember which side of that bet that he was on. He guesses that he was betting against it happening based on the typical professionalism that Liara had, still he cannot be sure. "I shouldn't be more than a moment."

The elevator opens to the flight deck. He steps off, but she calls out before he can escape; "you're forgetting something."

He freezes; he could not be caught quite yet. "Oh, what is it?"

"A good morning kiss."

He is caught off guard; they never gave displays of affection in public, well unless they were facing certain death. He smirks and gives her a quick kiss, and even waves her off as the elevator doors close behind her.

As soon as the elevator is completely closed, he accesses the now rarely used Edi terminal.

"Yes Garrus?" Her voice crackles from the holograph of her old form.

"Hold the elevator for a second and disable the intercom."

"Do you have the authorization code from Commander Shepard?"

"No Edi, but I need you to do it for me as a favor, for just long enough for one announcement." He pleads that this will work.

"Elevator halted, with the commander still inside. I have opened the intercom line for you."

"No one congratulate Shepard. No one mention a thing to Shepard. All operations normal. Anyone who says anything will have to deal with me, and I am a lot less hungover than any of you, and much handier with a gun. I repeat; DO NOT CONGRATULATE SHEPARD."

He hears a slight echo of his voice as the message goes through. "Thanks Edi. Move the elevator."

"Yes Garrus." The terminal responds before closing. He heads over to the cockpit, to make his cover believable.

"Hey Garrus. Sorry to hear that she rejected you." Joker asks a bit too jauntily.

"She didn't reject me, I just did not ask yet. How do you know anything?"

"Tali told me after she called my ship a pretty-pretty bird and then asked if she could play with the controls. And they put her on the Admiralty Board?"

"She just can't handle her alcohol. Anyways, Edi, if Shepard asks, you took Palevan of the itinerary."

"Palevan was never on the itinerary."

"Just if she asks. Please?"

"I cannot lie."

Garrus sighs. "Fine."

"I'll cover for you Garrus, just don't hurt the ship when you have to kill someone." Joker says as Earth comes into view. "We will be disembarking in an hour. Have you checked the news yet today?"

"No time. Thank you for the update. I'm off to the Mess Hall." Garrus runs off before Joker can finish his thought.

"I'm sure it'll be fine." Joker comments to Edi as they enter the atmosphere.


	8. Earth Updates

Chapter 8

Shepard steps off the ship to get her first real view of post-Reaper Earth. Vancouver is in shambles, with none of the original landmarks visible. Rubble is everywhere, but she can already see temporary buildings set up all around the port and construction crews gathering up for their morning meetings; they were ready to start again, without a doubt, but it would be a long fight to get Earth close to was before. It will never be the same, but it could be better, to make Earth more of a galactic asset.

Hackett strolls past security in Alliance standard issue apparel, instead of the formals that she had always seen him in. Regardless she snaps to salute until he stops in front of her.

"At ease Shepard." He says with his usual formality. "Although it feels like I should be saluting you in this scenario. The galaxy owes you a debt of gratitude it can never repay." He quickly salutes her.

"Just doing my job sir." She says modestly.

They walk closer to the Normandy. Only now does she notice all of the scratches it has gotten in the past few weeks; it had always seemed so indestructible to her that she never took a moment to notice its weaknesses. "It is the best ship the Alliance ever had—but we were not meant to have it. We are leaving it permanently under your authority, even while you are on leave."

"Thank you sir, but this was supposed to be your command center."

"The SSV Normandy SR-2 was for Anderson for when he was supposed to coordinate between the Council and the Alliance. He can no longer do that, so I am leaving the ship to our human Specters for the same purpose, although we both know Alenko will have to earn his ways back up the ranks after the Udina debacle, so this will primarily be your ship."

Alenko may be a Specter, but it seemed that all of the Council related duties consistently fell onto Shepard. Since he worked closest to Udina, it made sense that he would not trusted quite yet.

"I'll take care of her."

"I know you will. It is a shame that you will not be staying on Earth, but I know you will do us proud wherever you are. Given the circumstances I understand your choice to stay on the Citadel." Earth may be where she is from, but she spent so much time on ships that it hardly feels like home. She will always fight to protect it, but she will be more at home on a space station than on the planet where her last encounter was her being grounded after her attempt to delay the Reaper attack.

"How bad are the damages?"

"I'm not going to lie; it is going to be a long time before we are back to full strength, but everyone else is in the same position. Aside from the restoration efforts on Earth to resume a trading hub, we are focusing primarily on our agricultural colonies, as well as repurposing the majority of the military for construction. We do have defenses prepared, but since we know everyone is in the same situation, the likelihood that we need a strong army on standby is minimal. Our galactic population is down forty percent and down forty-five percent on Earth, so we may have to do some incentives for larger families, but for now we need to get our foundations started. The Geth are not rebuilding any particular home world so they have dispersed to help rebuild and to regain trust with the rest of the galaxy. They even gave each planet that they are working with access to their hub if there ever is concern about them being corrupted."

"I doubt that will happen. Let me know if you need any supplies; I will make it happen." She says. The crew starts to unload, with each member of the crew carrying out their foot locker with them.

"We will, although communication has never been more open with the Asari and the Turians." Hackett starts to head off. "Before I forget, I believe congratulations are in order." He adds

"Congratulations?"

"On your engagement. It is all over the Extranet. I hope the two of you have a long and happy life together." He walks away as tactical squad disembarks from the ship.

Garrus quickly finds Shepard as one of the last people to get off of the ship. He approaches carefully, trying to register the look of confusion on her face. He starts to speak, but she inadvertently cuts him off.

"Hackett just congratulated me on my engagement?" she says with a fairly stunned expression.

"I-uh-well…how?" Garrus stammers out.

"Apparently it is all over the Extranet."

Diane Allers walks by with her drone trailing her as she dictates a report about the status of the Earth reconstruction; he forgot that she was still on board. "I can't think of a decent explanation."

"Tali cornered you and you didn't back off?"

"Probably, but I can't remember. Either way I have been doing my best to mitigate all damage, but I forgot how connected we were to the rest of the Galaxy plus I was drunk—well everyone but you and Joker were drunk—so I couldn't really…"

Shepard laughs, freezing him in his tracks. "It's okay—I don't mind. It seems that any cross species parties that are affiliated with the Normandy will result with at least one drunken galactic confession." She slides her arms around his waist, which puts her barely level to his collarbone. She leans back just enough for him to get a good look at the earnestness on her face. "But whenever you do decide that you are ready to ask, you already know my answer."

He kisses her forehead, his favorite compromise between the Turian and human displays of affection. "Well, after a bit of research I will think of something that will bring any expectations you have to shame."

"I'll look forward to that."


	9. Reminiscing

Chapter 9

The Normandy stayed on Earth only long enough to help clear out the debris from the old Alliance headquarters. They were going to try to rebuild to be as similar as possible to how it used to be, but they were years out before realizing that goal. For now, they are simply gathering debris to determine how the old materials can be recycled. Luxury cannot be afforded; the human race has little sources of income and all of it needs to be used towards rebuilding the planets and the colonies.

Shepard entered the ship and instead of heading straight up to her cabin, she wanders the mostly empty ship. By her count, the only people on the ship are herself, Joker, Edi, Garrus, Tali, Liara, Javik, and Chakwas, who decided to continue her work on the Citadel. The ship would never be the same, especially now that it was hers, and not the property of the Alliance. She could do whatever she wanted with it, but she wants nothing more than to keep it the same as it had been in all the years that she had been on it. She wanders over to the cockpit after inputting the coordinates for the somewhat destroyed Citadel.

"Commander—crazy stuff with Garrus. How will you handle that when you get back on the Citadel?" Joker greets, letting Edi take over flight of the ship.

"Avoiding all reporters. I could set them straight, but I'll let the tabloids have this one. It will sort itself out in time." She answers simply. "Are you sure you are okay staying with the ship? There is still a spot for you in the Alliance."

"I can't exactly help with reconstruction. Besides, I can't leave the Normandy behind. I'm on your payroll Commander—assuming that I also get paid leave."

She smirks. "More or less, but I can't guarantee I won't need to head off world from time to time." She does not mention that technically speaking Edi can fly the ship herself. Either way, Joker would not be likely to leave the AI behind any time soon.

He dramatically sighs; "Can we at least have no life or death missions?"

"For at least a year—after that who knows what long dead race will appear and threaten the galaxy? Any trips will likely be drop offs of refugees or supplies, but only under special circumstances." She explains.

"As long as we only stop at tropical planets, without the same circumstances as Virmire."

"Joker, the Normandy will go wherever Shepard requires of it." Edi chimes in.

"Yes but I can at least put in some input as the permanent pilot in residence."

"Then what will you and I do while we are docked?" Edi asks.

Joker does not have a quick response prepared.

"With that, I should go." Shepard slides out despite Joker's pleading eyes begging her to step in and intervene once again in their relationship.

She wanders next to the mess hall, where she is not surprised to find the entirety of the remaining crew sitting around the metallic tables. Dr. Chakwas was busy taking inventory of the depleted Medbay stocks, but she left the door open so she could chime into any story that that the crew was updating Javik on. Shepard watches her dearest friends relive their nearly unbelievable tales about defeating Saren and the Collectors, but they glaze over the fact that the Collectors were enslaved Protheans around Javik.

"So we get through the Collector base, fighting our way through hordes of husks and Collectors and then of course we find a giant human shaped Reaper under construction." Garrus relives.

"It doesn't attack us right away so after we disconnect it from its feed of dying humans we assume that we are all done with the base. Only then as we start to evacuate the station does the Reaper pop right back up and start attacking us." Tali continues.

"I still don't know how Shepard did not see that one coming." Garrus judges.

"And she is the least equipped for the fight. With her focus on biotics, she was not equipped to deal with something flying just above her. She was trying to focus her side arm—the only thing she had not out of ammo—at any weak point while she could find while we were dealing with the last of the Collectors."

"When those were done I got the last shot of the Reaper, causing it to drop down and start a remote detonation of the entire base."

"You will never let us live down the fact that you took that kill shot." Shepard quips.

"How can you even tell? We were all shooting at it at the same time…" Tali adds.

"I had the biggest gun—it fell with a large hole in its eye. It only could have been me." Garrus explains.

"Uh-huh. Sure, but the Extranet will always credit me for it, with my tiny little side arm."

"The primitive went into a galaxy saving battle with just a sidearm?" Javik adds.

"She only ever used her sidearm; anything heavier throws her off. You should see her try to handle a sniper rifle—it is laughable really."

She makes a face a Garrus, who simply laughs. "I could have made that shot."

"But you missed." The remaining members at the table do not question their inside joke.

"I still only use my sidearm though. Plus, it increases my mobility with less weight to carry."

"In my cycle, fire strength always outweighed agility."

"It worked well enough to defeat the Reapers." Shepard quips.

The Prothean simply glares at her in response.

"Where are you heading to next Javik?" Shepard transitions.

"Deciphering Prothean artifacts wherever they are found with the Asari."

"You should really call her Liara at this point—we all know where you have been sleeping the past week." Tali adds. Liara stares at Tali, with a mixture of emotion on her face that no one can fully register. "Javik is not as sneaky as he thinks he is."

"Besides he would be your ultimate test subject." Garrus adds.

Shepard recalls one of the first encounters she had with Liara, the same one where Liara then asked how serious she was with Alenko. "Wait—have all of your romances started with you treating the other as a test subject?"

The Asari turns purple; she had been caught.


	10. Rematch

Chapter 10

The Normandy lands on Citadel, but Edi arranges for it to be docked away from the usual Alliance bay to possibly evade some of the reporters. Given the commotion of the refugees as they start heading back to their home-worlds. Despite the severe damage done, most of the planets are habitable allowing for life to resume as normal on the Citadel. Most of the reporters on resident on the Citadel were tracking leads on heartwarming stories of refugees reconnecting with families, but a few will definitely be waiting for the update on the romantic updates on the Normandy. Regardless, Garrus and Shepard have their footlockers waiting in the airlock to throw into the back of the first taxi they can get back to the apartment.

They are the only ones heading off the ship; Tali is scheduled to spend the next month being introduced back to the climate on Rannoch, Javik is returning to Eden Prime to help study the few remains they have of the Protheans, Liara will be staying on the ship to continue her role as the Shadow Broker, and, of course, Joker and Edi will permanently stay on the ship.

It is strange to think that the crew is disbanded and that she is no longer a solider fighting to protect the galaxy every waking moment, but she embraces it by simply wrapping her pinky around Garrus's outer finger as they wait for the airlock to clear them. He, in turn, looks at her with a soft smile mostly in his eyes.

The door opens; only four reporters, one of which Shepard nearly punched two years ago. The couple completely ignores them as they push ahead to the waiting taxi. Shepard tosses her footlocker in and slides into the passenger side while Garrus silently stands aside while the reporters try to get a statement out of them. He still says nothing, no matter how much they pester, without even giving so much as a 'no comment'. He slides in after as the designated driver back to their no home.

They ride in comfortable silence until Shepard notices that he detoured from the route. "Where are we going?" she breaks the silence.

"To my favorite place on the Citadel." He says without taking his eyes off the flow of traffic.

"This couldn't wait until after a hot bath? God I haven't had a good one of those since before Saren." She says as she stretches out as much as she can in her seat.

"No. We need a rematch, and I figured it'd be better to do it before we have to deal with the next set of reporters. Al Masani is waiting by our front door as we speak."

Shepard cannot place how she knows that name, but any reporter at her door is bad news. "Better to shoot canisters than shoot reporters. Since when are soldiers celebrities?"

"Since they are the whole reason we still have a galaxy. Don't forget that you are also the galaxy's first human Specter."

"Specters are not celebrities. You probably can't even name all of the Turian Specters."

"Well I can, but I know that as the Reaper advisor of Palevan I am a unique case. Either way, this will all eventually die down." He assures. "I give it a year, maybe two until we are just name less faces around here."

"Oh? Even when you are high on the list to become the next Primarch?"

"I am never telling you how high up I am on that list, but nice try. Either way, Turians cannot always pick out of a crowd who the next Primarch is. The next one is common knowledge but further down the line is limited to a small handful of elders."

"Well I can always try." Shepard says as he lands the taxi on the ledge overlooking the Presidium. Even in just the past week they managed to clear out last of the debris on the main green of the station. The skyline has nearly recovered as well; it almost looks like the war did not happen here.

"You coming Shep-Katherine?" Garrus asks as he notices that she has lingered.

"It is surprisingly beautiful up here." She comments distantly.

"It looks the same as before to me." He grabs four canisters out of his footlocker and heads to the same spot as last time, arranging the line of site to avoid the oncoming traffic.

"Yes, but it is about the only thing that hasn't changed. It is a constant in everything that has happened."

She cannot process the look on his face. "Ready?"

She smirks; "this time I will not miss."

He tosses the first canister underhand. It makes a shallow arch and starts heading down almost immediately. Using her hand gun, Shepard takes out the target by simply aiming from the hip. The canister breaks up with a satisfying clink and a burst of orange powder. "You willing to bet on that?" He tosses the next canister to her.

She catches it as it is line with her shoulder. "What is your bet?" She tosses the canister underhand as well, but in a further arch.

He shoots it without even looking directly at it, but the distinct clink tells them that he hit it square on. "How about you make me dinner tonight if you miss?"

"Even though I can hardly cook food for myself you want me to try making a dextro meal?" Shepard shifts her weight onto one side in her usual confident stance.

Garrus quickly examines the two canisters and puts down the slightly smaller one. "Yes. If you get it, I'll promise never to ask you to cook again."

"I can get behind that." She says with a smirk.

"Get ready—this one won't be nearly as easy."

She adjusts her stance to evenly distribute her weight and focuses her handgun with both hands. She focuses completely as he throws the canister like a javelin, using his considerably longer arms to help give the toss the long distance. She lets it get to the end of its arch and then shoots it, releasing the burst of orange powder again. She turns back towards him after the burst of light dissipates. "Well now you will never know if I can…"

She stops in her tracks as she notices him on one knee with the canister in his hands by his hip.

"Katherine…" He starts.

"Wait…" He blinks in confusion. Shepard tosses her gun aside and even removes her holster. It lands barely still on the ledge but she does not even check. "Okay, continue."

He snorts a laugh but quickly regains his composure. "Commander Katherine Shepard, will you honor this ugly old Turian by becoming his wife?" He breaks open the canister to reveal the homemade ring nestled within it.

"You know I will." She says she kneels down with him, wrapping her arms around his armored shoulders and then kisses his cheek with an overemphasized motion which nearly pushes him off balance.


	11. Desk Job

Chapter 11

"Thank god you're here. I was getting sick of fielding all of these requests on my own." Commander Bailey greets Shepard as she wanders into the human embassy office. Her brows furrow briefly. "The Council told me that you would be acting as the interim Councilor; you get to deal with all of the requests in my stead."

"Way to sell the job Commander." Shepard retorts. "I thought I was just going to be in charge of finding the replacement?" She had planned on just coming in long enough to get the stack of files that Sparatus, the Turian Council representative, left for her. But clearly that was a rouse to make her head in.

"Nope. You are the human council representative until you find a replacement, which should deal with the fact that you are technically without a job."

"I'm not without a job—I still have my title; I just took my name off payroll." All of the resources she got preparing for the Reaper war she invested back into the Alliance, but still she felt she could do more so she simply alerted Hackett that she was not going to take payment during her leave of absence.

"Whatever you say; still has you with no income on one of the most expensive stations in the galaxy, and I have no interest in fielding all of these requests on my own." Bailey says as he digs out the key for the currently closed office.

"Fine, but the moment I find someone else for the job I am out."

"Yes, and am sure that that will be done within the next year, possibly year and a half." Bailey remarks. As much as she hates to admit it, but he is probably right. Putting Anderson on the Council was an easy choice, but he hated every second of it. Anyone who would want the job would likely be a poor fit for the job, but anyone who would be a good fit likely would not want the job.

"Just let me into the office and forward anything that needs my attention."

"In exchange I'll deal with the reporters." The only glint of cooperation that Bailey appears. "Speaking of which, one of the C Sec desk jockeys accidentally leaked a few images from the security footage from your engagement. As a congratulations and sorry for not stopping the leak before it happened, this is for you."

He hands her a stack of picture frames. She flips one over; it is one of the stills. It is an adorable shot of her embracing him after he slid the ring on her finger, zoomed onto the ring. "C Sec security got these?"

"Yes, and the person who was watching the feed then moved the angles to get some shots to sell to the reporters. I did crop a little bit, but the Extranet probably has a few better images."

"Thank you Commander, these are lovely. But now you do realize that having me here means that you will have to do more reporter fielding than with Udina."

"You don't care as much about formalities and regulations as him, and you won't be hiding a secret agenda the whole time. I'll take it."

She takes the key into her new office; it looks exactly the same as the first time that she came to the Citadel. She immediately grabs one of the free standing arm chairs and drags it over to the veranda and syncs her personal tablet to the embassy servers. She may be stuck here for a while, but she is at least going to do things on her terms, which means no desk unless she has an official meeting.

She logs in to her Extranet mail account to find a second wave of congratulatory messages, but this time they are all accurate. She does not open them all, but simply finds the one she was looking for; from her mother.

 _Hello Sweetheart,_

 _I am so happy to hear about your engagement to Garrus, so much so that I am not at all annoyed that found out from the tabloids instead of from you, but I know that he is a good fit for you. Did you know that he kept me in the loop when you were recovering from your injuries? I approved of him when you first messaged me about your budding romance with an alien, but I knew he would be perfect for you when he forced you to do that tango (still my favorite video on the Extranet). Anyways, I am so happy for you and you will tell me when the wedding is before the reporters find out. I love you and I hope I can see you soon. Five years is too long to go without seeing each other._

 _Love you,_

 _Mom_

Shepard quickly sends a reply with a copy of all of the pictures that Bailey gave her, along with an update of her new role as temporary Council representative. She stops her break and then starts with the fifteen-thousand two-hundred and forty-three requests that have piled up since Udina betrayed everyone.

She started by categorizing them based on form submitted and then sets up an automatic filter to sort them in the future. Then she accepts every single transfer request for refugees to return back to their colonies. She is not sure why she is needed to approve these transfers; the colonies need all the help they can get and any one would know that. Bailey already ran the names through C Sec; literally all she had to do was click approve. She could bang these out by the end out the day and then she could start reading some of the four hundred and something files from Sparatus.

"Shepard—the Council is waiting for you for an update on humans on the Citadel." Bailey's voice cracks into her intercom.

She gets up; this is not going to be easy.


	12. Proposition

Chapter 12

Shepard waits outside the restaurant, aloof in the hallway as she uses her omni-tool to finish up all transfer requests that she promised herself that she would have done today. She stopped reading them; she basically opened the request enough to get to the approval box, clicks it, then submits the approval. She sighs; she should really just be able to make a program do this for her so she can spend her time working on something more important, like determining allocation of resources for the colonies or rebuilding the crumbled galactic economy.

The restaurant was built near the C Sec headquarters; Garrus had picked it for them to meet after work. It specialized in both human and dextro foods, so meeting here for dinner was far preferable to Garrus trying to make them dinner. Element 131 was fairly high scale, to the point where Shepard feels under dressed in her typical black skin dress. She did pull her hair out of her standard bun; it helped, mostly because now no one recognized her at first glance.

Garrus arrives late, but did take the time to remove his armor. "Shep…Katherine—have you been waiting long?"

She is startled for a second, but quickly recovers to deactivate her tool. "I hardly noticed. I've been too busy." She slides her arm through his as they approach the podium, which is manned by a Batarian hostess in a button down and black skirt, mimicking the uniform of human wait-staff.

"Reservation for two under Garrus Vakarian." He says simply.

"Right this way Mr. Vakarian." She does not even look at his companion before she grabs two identical menus from one of the two stacks on the table beside her podium. She leads them to a table in the middle of the restaurant. She places the menus on the table with a quick, inattentive motion, and then returns to her podium after briefly mumbling that their waiter will be with them shortly.

"Well, I suppose she must be busy." Shepard comments.

"Regardless, I heard this place was good with decent variety." He pulls out the chair for Shepard, which she accepts with a smile.

"It'll be fine. No one here seems to have recognized us, which I must say I enjoy." Shepard comments as he takes the seat across from her. "So how was your interview this morning?"

"Well it was not much of an interview really. Major General Faust had already decided to give me a job before I even sat down, but not my old one. Instead, I am running my own department to take care of all cases that the investigative division were not able to solve." He explains gleefully.

"But how is it going to be different?" She asks.

"Simply put, no more red tape. Whatever resources we need, we get. No questions asked. My squad—which I have already picked—will only have to report to me. Oh, and I got a new rank with it; you are looking at Colonel Vakarian now." He adds with a smirk.

"Congratulations." She says emotionlessly.

A Turian that Garrus places at about five years younger than himself approaches the table with a new menu in his hand. He has on a uniform that looks similar to a human button down with black pants but had been modified to fit the overly defined collarbones associated with the species. "Good evening, welcome to Element 131. I am Bassius and I will be your waiter this evening. I took the opportunity to grab you the correct menu miss. Sorry for the inconvenience." He accidentally knocks her empty glass over when he places it down.

"No big deal; I understand her hostility." Shepard responds. Given her previous actions, it made complete sense that a Batarian would resent her. Even if she had tried to warn them, she still destroyed their home galaxy. There was no forgiving that.

"Can I get you something to drink?" He grabs his notepad.

Garrus orders a bottle of red wine for the table, one that she does not recognize. Either way, he had not led her astray yet with his choices.

"I'll be right back with those."

"Anyways, how was your day reading dossiers?" Garrus transitions.

"I didn't even get the chance to. Apparently the Council expects me to stand in as human Council member. I spent the morning approving travel requests and the afternoon in a meeting that boiled down to everyone needing help restoring their planets. I did not even get a chance to offer up my proposal for an expanded council."

"I can't say I'm surprised; you would be the most logical stand in. A council species cannot simply go unrepresented, especially not during a time like this. Besides, you have proven to be quite capable to fill the position." He explains in an oddly diplomatic voice.

Shepard sighs; given her role in coordinating the armies and the supplies, it was only a matter of time. Still, she does not have to like it. It will only be temporary. "I know, but I rather not."

"Then tonight, don't be. Tonight, we are just out to dinner to celebrate our engagement." Garrus suggests, oddly smoothly.

The blue Turian returns with their drinks. He double checks that he has the correct drinks before starting to take their orders. When Shepard points out her choice, the Turian reads it incorrectly twice before she manages to pronounce it correctly for him.

"I have never seen a Turian working in the service sector before." Shepard comments distantly.

"I know you have met Turian shop keepers."

"Yes but they all sold weapons."

"True. Usually service jobs are reserved for those unable to serve to hold their position in the hierarchy. He looks like he is mostly blind to me; since he cannot handle a weapon, they have him serving food." Garrus explains matter-of-factly.

"So how does the hierarchy work again? I know there is one and Turians all know every detail about it, but I kind of have no real clue."

"There are twenty-seven tiers. The first tier is for those who do not contribute to society in any way. The second tier is for people like our waiter who work low level service jobs without producing any economic support. Ranks three and four are for those who excel in the service industry and small business owners. Corporation owners can get as high as rank fifteen, but that rarely ever happens. Anyone who starts their mandatory military service—either in the Turian military or in C-Sec—starts at rank five. As they get promoted through the ranks or simply get recommended by their superiors, they move up the ranks. Only the Primarch is in rank twenty-seven. The Turian council representative as well as the next five possible Primarchs are in the twenty-sixth tier. The rest of the generals are in rank twenty-five, but there are a handful of lieutenant generals who have enough commendations to be in that rank, and a few generals have been demoted to the rank below and are pending review for demotion. Enlisted soldiers can get as high as rank fifteen. Officers start at rank ten and ranks go up from there. The ranks of the numbers of your clan don't matter, unless your family has had someone above the twenty-fifth tier in the past generation, then your family gets additional perks and are marked with blue marks instead of the usual white markings." He explains.

"And you all can tell everyone else's rank by looking at them?"

"Within a rank or two. Bassius may be rank two or three, but I cannot be sure without some other indicator."

"Second tier unfortunately. I only started working two years ago so it will be awhile before I can see any real benefits." Bassius says as he delivers their plates. "The Vakarian clan on the other hand has had someone reach the twenty-fifth tier every generation for the past twelve generations. Never a Primarch though, but always close. I assume you are Garrus Vakarian then? Sorry I have never been good with faces."

"That I am. I assume you know of Commander Shepard?"

"Spirits. What brings you here?"

"Just eating dinner. The difference in dietary restriction makes eating out preferable to cooking." Garrus responds, flattered by the recognition.

"For now on whenever you visit, just use 'Actus' to hold your reservation—that should prevent the press from finding you here on a regular basis. However, I think Mara has already let one in." He tilts his head over to show an Asari poking around with a camera flying over her shoulder.

"Batarians really don't like me." Shepard comments as she takes a bite into her steak. "We might as well deal with her now so we can enjoy the rest of our meal without having Bassius blocking her view."

"Excuse me—I think you are looking for us?" Garrus tries to get the attention of the Asari, who immediately rushes over.

"Sorry to bother you while you are eating but Tevos demanded that I track you down before the end of the Galactic day." The Asari says.

"Tevos? You must be her assistant then." Shepard had met her briefly before, but she barely remembers her name. "Sella Leuss if I am not mistaken?"

"That is correct. Since the destruction of our planet, Tevos has been trying to control more of the Citadel affairs."

"Let me guess, this has to do with whatever they were discussing after they had me leave the meeting today?" Shepard asks.

"Yes it does." The Asari begins the speech that she likely had been panicking about her ride over. "As you know, the Citadel was moved into the local cluster for the conclusion of the Reaper war and we have been moving it back to the Serpent Nebula. We are seven days out from being back in our original orbit, which will be the first step in restoring stability within the galaxy. The Council was wondering if you two would be willing to get married on that day as a representation of how the galaxy can be when it is unified."

Shepard raises an eyebrow and exchanges glances with Garrus who matches her skepticism.

"I know it is a lot to ask but as the heroes of the galaxy and one of the few cross-species couples in the galaxy, it would be iconic."

"And serve as a distraction for all of the colonists who are now deep into restoration of their worlds." Garrus adds.

"But also possibly upset the galaxy as while the rest of the galaxy is deep in repairs, the Citadel would be allocating resources for a wedding. Did they consider that?"

"Yes. They determined that the strength of the symbol outweighs the risk, plus if we keep things simple it should mitigate those risks." Sella reports.

Shepard exchanges glances with Garrus, who merely shrugs. "We really don't have time to mull this over do we?"

"Not really, especially since we imagine you would want your families present."

Shepard stares at Garrus, pleading for him to give some input.

"Turians don't usually get married. This is your call."

Shepard sighs, and makes the judgement call; "Fine. Get Liara T'Soni to officiate and as much of the tactical squad as you can over—I know that will make the symbol even better—and tell Tevos that I am going to need you to do the bulk of the planning because I don't have time and Commander Bailey sure as hell can't do it."

"I will get started right away."


	13. Introductions

Chapter 13

Garrus arrived in the office first thing in the morning, having left the apartment the same time that Shepard did. His new squad had not yet arrived, but it gave him the opportunity to arrange the desks the way that he always wanted them to be. In stead of in a couple of clusters closing everyone off, he arranged the desks around the outside of the room facing in. He has his armor back on for the first time in a while with the new marks denoting his rank carved into the rim, and a couple of new names written on his visor. His office is in the next room, with his desk holding the beginning of a picture collection. So far, he has his last family picture, the picture of the Normandy crew, and a picture from the engagement. Given his previous tendencies, he knows that he will be spending the majority of his time in the office, so he might as well make it his own.

Garrus leaves a matching stack of files on each of the three desks. His own versions of the files are annotated, but he has to be sure that his selected squad can match his expectations. He slips into his office while making sure that he still has a view of the door.

The first to arrive is the biotic specialist, Lieutenant Lyzia T'Gegos, fifteen minutes before the day was scheduled to start. She is fairly young by Asari standards, only one-hundred fifty years old, but still a bit older than the Asari he had spent his time with. He found her in the security division. She was consistently one of the people with the most arrests each month, but due to her inability to accept when a suspect was released she was always passed over for promotion. She picks the desk closest to his office door and immediately pulls out her notebooks. She takes notes separate from the files and is already buried deep into files when the day was scheduled to start.

The research specialist arrives exactly as the workday is supposed to start. Specialist Tolas Anoin, a Salarian who only recently reached maturity, was on the task force to implement a new system to track the contents of the evidence locker but was booted off when they decided to modify the protocol mere days before the system was completely installed, but it allowed him to learn how to manipulate what was in the system and what was not properly stored. He had some tech proficiencies but was so rarely in combat that he likely had not bothered to maintain them in a while. He would have reminded Garrus of the scientist Salarian who may or may not have had given him advice on his relations with his soon to be wife, if it weren't for the fact that this Salarian were green and rarely spoke more than he had to, and most definitely did not sing. He starts by immediately modifying the software on his computer in the corner, an act that usual gets the offender written up, but here it does not matter, even if the Salarian does not yet know that.

The last to arrive is a Turian who was likely only a year younger than himself but was stalled in his advancement up the hierarchy due to his numerous writeups while he was in the military. Second Lieutenant Ephentos Lorius seemed to be pulling it together, but his record on Palaven prevented him from being recognized. By Turian standards, he is attractive with his red scales and narrow face. He was being trained as a weapon specialist, but was not making marks as a sniper, but Garrus is sure that it will only take a moment to correct his aim, even though the majority of the trainers were pushing to kick him out. Still, based on the notes Garrus caught him taking on previous briefings, he had plenty of potential. He tosses his personal affects onto the desk in the opposite corner from the Salarian, leaving the desk to the entrance of the office unoccupied. He immediately checks the stock of weapons in the lockup, including the inventory of mods.

Only after Lieutenant Lorius sits at his desk does Garrus emerge from his own office, trying to emulate Shepard the best he can. The squad snaps at attention immediately.

"At ease." Garrus says with a dismissive wave. "And please never salute me again, unless one of my superiors is waiting here."

"Yes, Colonel Vakarian, sir," they respond in a trained unison.

"None of that either—Garrus or Colonel is fine unless one of my superiors is around. I have learned over the past few years that strict workplace order disrupts final outcomes, which is why this unit was established." Garrus begins his speech. "Basically, the red tape no longer is going to get in your way. If it is against protocol but you need to do it, do it. If it is illegal, run it by me quickly then do it. We are going to solve as many dead cases as we can. As we solve more, we get more resources. I have picked a few for you to start with. Usually you will not have to completely report to me, but for the first couple of days you are going to read these files and report back your impressions and your plan of attack. Understood?"

"Understood." The Asari reports.

"Roger." The Salarian affirms.

"On it." The Turian finalizes and immediately returns to his desk.

"If you have any questions, my door is wide open, although I will be spending my afternoon at the range; I have gone over three weeks without touching a weapon and I need to remedy that quickly." Garrus says as he grabs his modified rifles off the rack. "If I'm not around just message me. It'll pop up on my visor immediately." He leaves without waiting for more of a response but knows well that none of them would ask any questions quite yet.

He is nearly completely sure that they will fail their first assessment bad, but they will have to start somewhere.


	14. Fitting

Chapter 14

Shepard finished developing a program to filter and automatically approve certain requests. Roughly half of her new job appeared to be to approve requests that nearly anyone in C Sec could have approved, so this allowed her to focus on far more pressing plans, namely the allocation of resources of the fifty-nine human colonies to best allow restoration of the most colonies at once. Fourteen of the colonies are completely uninhabited, and the bulk of the resources from the colonies are being directly funneled to Earth to reestablish trade hubs and Alliance headquarters.

Despite the fact that her day to day tasks have been largely automated, she still cannot focus on her planning as Sella bought over a seamstress to work on her dress. The best she can do is float a couple of screens in front of her with her Omni-tool to read the most recent reports from each of the colonies. All of them are from early in the war. Even though the Normandy was the primary ship to acquire resources, she cannot be sure how up to date the reports are. By her best estimations, roughly half of the galactic population was destroyed, and she cannot be sure how many were humans.

"Human wedding dresses are always white? Are you sure they can't be changed?" Sella asks as she flips through multiple screens on her tablet.

"Almost without exception. Shepard has no interest in deviating." The seamstress is a human who is easily twenty years older than Doctor Chakwas with the calming presence of a grandmother, but she barely hides her irritation about the changes that the Asari kept trying to insist on.

"But they look so plain. Are you sure we can't add some flowers or color panels?"

Shepard fights to not mention that most Asari on the Citadel are frequently found wearing nearly identical floor length dresses. "I prefer no to." She simply comments, remaining as focused on her work as she possibly can be.

"She wants the dress modeled after her mother's and grandmother's. Plus, from what I can tell Shepard prefers things understated and rather not make a real fuss, so please dial it back." The seamstress fights for her instead. Shepard hides her smirk behind her translucent screen—she really wishes that she remembered her name.

"Fine. We will just make the venue more elaborate." Sella starts. "Tevos set enough funds that we can build something."

"No, the gazebo on the Presidium will be fine. There is lots of flowers there, and it is visible from several vantage points, which will be good for your goal to broadcast it across the galaxy, and it will mitigate outcry against the Council as it is a preexisting structure. Plus, it has a gorgeous view of the lake that cannot be built. If you want to relocate some plants from near construction sites to the gazebo, you can do that, but really you should not do much else." Shepard rants, still not really glancing away from her screens.

"Actually, it will be near a fountain in Citadel Tower. Tevos wants to ensure that no one can attack the members of the Council or other figureheads. Would you like me to build a gazebo?"

Shepard sighs; "No, it's fine." She goes ahead and has the colonies sorted by resource and then by the amount of the resources she suspects to be remaining. Even with incomplete data she can do this much for a starting point for when the updates come in. She had put in requests for reporters to verify the resources on each Colony, but with the wedding coming up, no one is available to go check.

"The guest list is finalized as well. Everyone should arrive in four days so we just need to double check their lodging so that no one will be sleeping on their ship." Sella seems to be mostly reporting to herself.

"My mother will be arriving with them?" Shepard finally looks away from the screen.

"No Captain Hannah Shepard will not be arriving—she did not make the cut."

Shepard says nothing.

"That is ridiculous. Her only living relative should be there." The seamstress fights for her.

"It can't be helped. We have dignitaries from every race present and very little room. We had to cut her. We did invite Garrus's family, but only his sister responded." The Asari says.

"I know you Asari don't get it, but humans are close to our families; we don't just toss our children aside when they are grown. We look after them until we die, we hold our families together as tightly as we can for as long as we can, we are devastated when the family falls apart, and, most importantly, we need to be at every event that changes our families. It was bad enough that no one took the time to tell Captain Shepard when her daughter came back from the dead, but she has to be there." The old woman rants at the officious Asari.

"I suppose I can find a spot for her." The Asari admits defeat. "I'll go call her now."

"Thank you so much for that." Shepard closes her screens as soon as Sella is out of earshot.

"I know you are just going along with this because you have to, but that doesn't mean you shouldn't be able to get at least something that you want. I have been following you for a while—you have done everything in your power to save everyone, even when everyone was against you. You have done everything to keep the peace, making the decisions that no one else could. I may not be military, but I know that no one else could possibly do what you did. You may not be able to fight for what you want, but I can. I am old and I will never have any power, but I have no problem going head to head with that Asari." The seamstress says as she quickly programs a hologram on her own omni-tool. She sets up a mirror in front of the Commander and establishes the hologram onto her.

The hologram is thick enough that she cannot see her usual clothes through it, but she can barely even recognize herself. The dress is nearly identical to her mother's, only with a higher neckline to hide her freshest scars. It is simple, plain, but it is exactly what she wants.

"Maria, thank you so much. This is perfect." She finally remembered her name. "I really appreciate it."

"Is there anything else you want Commander Shepard? I will fight to the death to get what you deserve."

"Katherine, please. And so long as she gets my mother here in time, I will do whatever they need me to."


	15. First Test

Chapter 15

Lieutenant T'Gegos is the first to finish going through the files. This does not seem like a test; it seems more like their first case. Four different models of handguns were found nestled into a crate of food heading off to Selvos as part of the deal with the Asari; this was the file in the stack with the most evidence. The rest of the stack was of weapon busts of illegal trading down in the wards. In each bust, there was an extensive list of weapons taken. When she went through the lists, all four of the found weapons were on these. Granted, the guns found all had their serial numbers removed, but the Scorpion IV had the same nick in the plating as the one on file.

Lieutenant Lorius was on one of those cases; he was on the squad that closed on the case with the Acolyte VII. T'Gegos notices and immediately heads over to the evidence locker. The desk in the front of the lockup is a bored looking human today, who barely looks at her badge before letting her use the machine to pull forward the evidence from the case, simply by typing in the case number. She pulls forward the case with the four weapons. After three minutes of the belt moving through, a crate slides forward with official evidence tape sealing it.

She starts to type in the number for the case that Lorius worked but stops halfway through typing the code. She simply takes the crate out the door with her and takes note discreetly of the credentials of the warrant officer at the desk.

The Asari drops the crate on Lieutenant Lorius's desk, opening it so only he can see it. He looks up with confusion, surprised that the Asari that had not said a word to him had approached his desk. She grabs a pair of latex gloves and shows him the Acolyte VII.

He reaches for it with a bare hand, but she lifts it back with a glare. He rolls his eyes and puts a pair of gloves on himself. "Turians don't have fingerprints. I never understand why we need gloves all the time."

"You do have epithelial cells though." She then hands him the weapon. "Do you recognize this?"

He stands and lines a sight to a clip on the other side of the room. Even though he lined it up manually, the sight still tended to be about a centimeter to the left. He then looks on the side to find a subtle dent on the metal casing from a Krogan thumb. "I'm pretty sure I confiscated this along with about fifty others; it was to a small mercenary group with ten Krogan or so and a bunch of Vorcha. Most of the weapons were well used so most of them had dents on them like this one."

T'Gegos tries to see it but cannot visualize the dent. "Specialist Anoin—can you confirm?"

The Salarian gets up and joins them in the corner. He activates a laser pointer in his Omni-tool and lines it up to the spot. "Affirmative." He pulls up a secure server without another word, letting the screen cover his face.

"You are looking to see when Lorius's case was last accessed?" T'Gegos asks, knowing full and well that the Salarian is not likely to explain his thought process ahead of time.

"Affirmative."

"Don't do that. If Lieutenant T'Gegos is right, we can't risk alerting anyone." Lieutenant Lorius fills in the gaps quickly in his mind.

"Admin access."

"We need to see what kind of trail that leaves first. Check one of your old files instead. Something innocuous—did you ever process a kidnapping where the child was found or really any crime involving a Quarian?" T'Gegos prompts.

"AF-69BQG1-S. Look at that one—it is the case where Shepard intervened when a Volus accused a Quarian of stealing. Anything that Shepard happened to pick up will be safe to tap on." The Turian chimes in quickly. "A friend of mine was the arresting officer. If anyone asks you about it, we were researching our new boss and it came up in conversation."

The Salarian pulls up the case and looks at it long enough for the cover story to be believable.

Colonel Vakarian steps out of his office in his C Sec uniform and clicks a button to make the room appear as if the room was unchanged. "So, what have you determined?" He asks, even though he had listening in since T'Gegos returned.

"Our first case is an internal investigation?" Lorius asks incredulously.

"How did you come to that conclusion?" He pushes.

"The guns that were found in the crate to Selvos match the ones that were previously in lockup. The only way that they could have gotten out is if someone in C Sec—above E5 or O2—pulled out the evidence crates. In theory we should be able to get our first suspect lists just by checking the logs to see who signed out the evidence crates, but I somehow doubt that there will be anything in those records." Lieutenant T'Gegos begins.

The Colonel hands her his tablet where the logs are already loaded. Sure enough, they are empty. The only entry in each log is the admission of the evidence. There was not even a record of when Garrus printed out the log.

"So, the involved persons work in the evidence locker to remove the evidence crates without a digital trail? I thought we had counter-measures to prevent that from happening." T'Gegos muses.

"No. Project scrapped." Specialist Anoin pipes in. "Near end. Odd to say least."

"If I remember correctly, the new protocol was being installed but was cancelled just weeks before completion. In the end, the old security was likely not completely reinstalled."

"Someone with O9 rank gave the order, but there is no record of who gave it as the credentials used were of someone who had been dead for years. However, no one bothered to check the credentials because they were O9." The Colonel explains.

"This is going to be a lot more than four weapons. The war relaxed security, so if you marked a crate as going to one of the armies, it was pretty much always green listed. I got put on dock duty plenty of times—it happened regularly." Lieutenant Lorius explained. "If they simply added a couple of extra guns to a shipment, the extra guns could have just been thought as a miscount. Someone obviously thought to take advantage."

"What's your next step?" The Colonel says with a nod of approval.

"We should go through the evidence locker manually to determine which guns and red sand are missing and see if there happens to be any common names on the files. There are thousands of crates, but we can assume that all of the supplies were taken from fairly recent cases, so hopefully we only will have to go through a couple thousand crates." Lieutenant Lorius takes the initiative, even though he has the lowest rank.

"Why red sand?" T'Gegos asks.

"Well it is likely being shipped out to arm some sort of operation, so why wouldn't they send red sand to help fund whatever the operation is?" Lorius justifies.

"Good. I came to the same conclusion. How would you search the evidence locker?"

"We can't let anyone know that we are on to them so we either have to find a way to get into the locker undocumented, or, probably more simply with Specialist Anoin's credentials, have it documented that we are studying a random collection of cases that are unrelated. I am guessing that this is not our only responsibility so we should pull a case for this each time that we pull something for another case. There could always be two crates for one case." He plans with only a brief pause.

"Correct. You are all going to be assigned to patrols as well. Specialist Anoin has the 1000 to 1500 shift on the evidence desk everyday for the next six months—you can use that time to manually search the locker as well. Lieutenant T'Gegos and Lorius, here are your patrol schedules. Good work—I was concerned at first, but you managed to pull the pieces together in the end by identifying your available assets." The Colonel praises. "Tomorrow we will start combat testing. For the rest of the day, feel free to wrap up any open files from before you were tasked here."

The Colonel then excuses himself to go greet the newest arrivals from Palevan, leaving his squad to their own devices for the evening.


	16. Gifts

Chapter 16

"I don't care what you do; you cannot just stop the supply flow to Eden Prime. If we have to stop flow to Drasta for awhile we can, but the produce that Mindoir has will be invaluable to help rebuild Eden Prime. We have to focus resources to the colonies that can best help rebuild the galaxy as a whole. Drasta is small and has not yet established a permanent economy so they cannot really help. Plus, with their focus on agriculture and their current surplus Drasta can survive a few months until I find a more permanent solution." Shepard explains to the hologram of the colony leader.

"But we need the lumber from Drasta to fix our buildings—we just can't cut them off all together."

"And Mindoir will get the lumber. I will contact Drasta this afternoon to organize a fair trade." Shepard checks her omni-tool to see which colonies have extra resources to trade that Drasta needs. From what she can tell, Drasta mostly needs bodies. She can allow for Asari refugees to settle over there in exchange for the lumber, but that would decrease the amount of time that Drasta can go without the aid. "I already have something in mind. Is there anything else that you need?" She says somewhat dismissively.

"Not at the moment, although we are going to run low on palladium soon."

"How soon?"

"Maybe in a couple of months."

"Then I will address it then. Thank you for your cooperation."

The Mindoir representative cuts the connection, fairly content with the outcome of the deal. Shepard adds a note to talk to Tevos to confirm the transfer of refugees. If she allows two-thousands refugees to go to the colony, she can stop the trade route for three months without any issue, assuming that the Asari can at least somewhat contribute to the farming output. Although it is not ideal, she knows that Tevos has been desperate for anywhere to send refugees, so she can likely just email her before calling Drasta.

Garrus walks into the human embassy with a female Turian with him in a casual Turian dress. Shepard immediately assumes that she must be Solana, his sister. Shepard had only met a small handful of female Turians, but somehow Solana seems softer than the others, less rigid and less stuck to protocol than the others.

"Katherine, meet my sister. Solana, this is Shepard." Garrus explains formally.

"Anyone can recognize the famous Commander Shepard, Gar. Her picture is plastered all over the galaxy on multiple advertisements and reports." Solana responds.

Shepard laughs. "Yes, I am not even sure what programs they are using me for anymore. Since when is a war hero a celebrity?"

"Well it is normal for Turians, but I see what you mean. This is a bit extreme. The whole staged wedding must be ridiculous for you—every movie I have ever seen shown human weddings as a giant affair that they spend months planning. Having an Asari plan your wedding in a week must be torture."

"Maria is intervening for me. If you stick around for even ten minutes you can meet her. She has been making this odd arrangement a bit more tolerable."

"You hired someone to handle the Asari for you?"

"I would do it myself but someone has to organize the human colonies. Now how did you get here so fast? I thought no one from Palevan would arrive until late tomorrow."

"My leg hasn't completely healed yet so I cannot help with the restoration of Palevan. I was already on a ship here to be a nurse to the Turian refugees still here when I got the invite. Castis cannot make it though—he was placed in charge of restoration of our region, and it is barely habitable there. Nearly everything is charred, but he is convinced he can have people living there by the end of the year." Solana explains. "I'm not nearly as optimistic, but I did find mom's chain which is a start." She grabs a platinum chain with a burnt but recognizable emblem of an ancient tree. She hands it to Shepard who inspects it carefully.

"It represents the beauty and tranquility of the region we used to live in. She wore it everywhere. I thought you made yourself a copy of it years ago?" Garrus interrupts.

She holds up her arm to show the chain with the matching emblem but is in far better shape. "That one is for Shepard to keep. I got all of my memories from it so I figured I should share it with my sister."

"It's so beautiful—are you sure you want to give this to me?"

"Absolutely. It is my way of welcoming you to the clan."

Shepard drops the chain around her neck, not needing the clasp with her much smaller head than the average Turian. The slightly melted tree emblem reflects the artificial light of the Citadel to make a satisfying shine on the surface. She could get it cut to be its original shape, but she immediately knows that she will leave it as it is.

"Thank you Solana." Shepard automatically reaches to give the much taller woman a hug, not even thinking about what the Turian custom would be. She has no idea, but Solana accepts the gesture without question.

Maria rushes into the office with a dress bag slung over her shoulder. "Where the hell did Sella learn anything about human customs? My goodness, this time she tried to remove the whole 'you may now kiss the bride' section so any Elcor guests would not be confused. What kind of wedding does not have a kiss? It is literally the best part. And she still will not agree to having a reception. She basically is saying that the food preferences are too diverse to possibly be coordinated and that the embassies that each dignitary is from can feed their guests themselves. I did get her to agree to invite your mother—which is good because I invited her days ago—and she did agree to let Liara T'Soni officiate, for no other reason than she is well recognized from her work on Illium."

"And this would be Maria." Shepard introduces the small woman as she rushes by with her supplies.

"I like her already." Solana says immediately.

"Garrus, I've been trying to get a hold of you all morning. How are you managing on the list I gave you?" She says as soon as she spots him.

"You will get the last confirmation by lunch."

"See this is why I love Turians—if you ask them to do something, they get it done and they get it done right. Asari love things being perfect and beautiful, but they don't always follow customs correctly."

"If that is the case, you would love our father." Solana jokes, getting a slight scoff from Garrus.

"Who is this one?" Maria pauses to ask as soon as she registers the new presence.

"My future sister-in-law Solana."

"She can stay, but you need to leave Garrus. I need to do another fitting and the groom is not allowed to see the dress. Bad luck you know."

"I have to get going anyways—this is the first combat test for my squad and I am not hopeful." Garrus grabs Shepard's hand and gives it a squeeze before he heads off. She smiles and waves him off.

"Good, now Katherine I need you to get this on for a fitting. I have the sheath complete but before I get the lace on it I want to make sure it fits."

She grabs it and moves behind a partition to change.

"Now do you need a dress Solana? You must have already been en route when you were given the news. I think a roman shift dress would look divine on you with your collarbone and will soften your hips while emphasizing your waist. I can have it ready by tomorrow."

"I'll try it. Katherine, mind if I stick around today? I was given a few days off for the event."

"Of course. I'm sure that Maria will try to put you to work though." Shepard returns in the simple white sheath. It cuts off at her chest, partially through one of her fresh burn scars. "I think this needs to be brought in a little bit more around the waist."

"Yes, and I think I want to bring the bust up a little bit more too. The scars on your arm also look fairly irritated as well. Do you want a sleeve for that arm?"

"No, its fine. Everyone knows how I got it anyways. As for the bust, fine but I could cover it with a bit of makeup."

"Which would you rather? I know you wanted it as similar to your mother's as possible."

"Slightly higher I think. Could we just do a bit of lace raise it? I don't want it too obvious that I am hiding an injury."

"I will have to do a combination of both." She programs another hologram. "How's that?"

"Perfect."


	17. Combat Testing

Chapter 17

Lorius grabs his sniper rifle and lines up his sight, and, per usual, it is not the proper length for his arms. He has tried every stock option available, but none of them are the correct length. T'Gegos has tried to organize them for an attack plan, but since the scenario is randomized each time, there is no way for them to plan ahead of time.

"If it is a warehouse again, Lieutenant Lorius, what is your role?" She quizzes as soon as she notices that he is not paying attention.

"If it is a warehouse, go to the highest stack and pick off any combatants before you two reach them. If it is a ship, switch to an assault rifle and lead the charge. If it is an open location, hang back with the sniper rifle and catch everything that your biotic charge does not get." He lists without looking her way. "In all situations, Anoin will send out his drone to attack for him. We all heard you."

"Then why haven't you given input?"

"You haven't asked for input." He points out, now modifying his assault rifle. "After yesterday's failure, it seems fairly obvious that you don't want input."

"Well do you have a better plan?" She asks.

"Not yet, but we need to be more adaptable." He says simply. "We can't predict every scenario."

The alert sounds; "Simulation starts in thirty seconds. Please get to the starting position."

They head over to the start, with T'Gegos grumbling to herself. Anoin stays on the right, with Lorius on the left of the Asari. T'Gegos readies her shotgun and hand cannon. Anoin pulls up his omni-tool to prep his drone.

"Relax, just stick with the plan. It will work." T'Gegos insists as the countdown for the last ten seconds before the simulation starts.

A wasteland of destroyed husks of buildings appears. The Asari is quickly flustered by this fact; she had not planned for this type of scenario. From what she can tell, this is a simulation of Tuchanka.

"Shut up." She yells at the Turian as she realizes that she had not prepared for this scenario. "Just use the plan as if we were in a warehouse. It should still work."

"So long as we don't have to face a thresher maw." Lorius mumbles to himself. He still obeys and climbs up a large pile of debris. Anoin backs up a bit and generates a recon drone to see what combatants they are up against.

"Vorcha." He says simply. "About fifty."

"Okay. Vorcha are easy to get. They have almost no defense. Lorius—focus on getting headshots. Best way to get them." She alerts the Turian as he sets up his rifle.

"Great, but if too many come through the chokepoint I won't be able to get them all." He retorts.

The first six Vorcha run through the door. He gets headshots of the first four easily, but misses the next one completely. Anoin gets the other two with his drone.

"Could you please pay more attention?" T'Gegos taunts. "Expert marksman? I don't see it."

"I'll show you expert marksman…" he mumbles quietly into his sight.

"Eight more incoming." Anoin announces indifferently.

He lines up his sights again, and easily takes out all eight of the next set.

"Thank you." T'Gegos snarks. The Turian simply rolls his eyes, wondering why the biotic is not doing anything.

They wait about thirty seconds for Anoin to give the update on the next wave.

"Any sign of them?" T'Gegos asks.

"Eighteen beyond the chokepoint. No moving." The Salarian reports.

"Lieutenant Lorius, get ahead to the next view point." The Asari orders.

"There isn't one. The rest of the simulator is closed off. We have to go ahead." He tries to keep the insubordination out of his voice, but obviously fails.

From the next room they can hear released gunfire.

"Drone down. Needs to recharge." Anoin states.

"Great, so now we have to push ahead with no information of the next stage. Lorius, catch up! We're going ahead." T'Gegos heads to the doorway with Anoin and they charge through.

Lorius scowls; she should have held the door first to decrease the effects of an ambush. It was part of basic training for C Sec officers. Besides, he has a grenade; he could have cleared half of them in seconds. He jumps down and switches his sniper rifle for the assault rifle as he sprints towards them in the next room where they are taking heavy fire.

T'Gegos focuses a series of shockwaves towards the throng of Vorcha while Anoin preps his machine gun. She is able to knock them off their feet, but her shockwaves are fairly weak for area attacks as she only ever had to arrest one or two offenders at a time. Lieutenant Lorius slides behind them.

"Specialist, how much longer do you need to recharge your drone?" He asks as soon as he notices T'Gegos struggling to keep the Vorcha away.

"Thirty seconds."

"Can you self-destruct your drones?"

"Affirmative."

"Get that ready. T'Gegos, on my mark fall back." Lorius takes command.

"Why exactly?" She argues.

"Because I don't feel like explaining how I let someone on my squad get hit by a grenade. So get back." He orders.

She jumps back and he throws his grenade.

"Anoin as soon as the dust clears, detonate your drone." He coordinates. "T'Gegos, is your push stronger than your shockwave?"

"Yes, but I can only do one target effectively."

"That's fine. When we find the next wave use push on the front group while Anoin gets his next drone ready. I will shoot any remaining ones until the two of you can restore your abilities. Other than that, don't get hit, got it?"

"Understood." T'Gegos sheepishly agrees as the Turian takes command.

"Anoin, are they coming towards us?"

The Salarian quickly sends out another drone "No. They are holding position. Two regions. About fifteen in each."

"Detonate the drone in the middle of the further back group. Maybe it can flush them forward so we only have to deal with stragglers." He loads his assault rifle as well. "T'Gegos, your weapon is the shortest range so you are going to have to lead the advance. If anything gets close, push them back."

She sheepishly obeys.

They advance, with Anoin in the middle and Lorius holding his sight against eye as he moves. "Anoin, send drones as soon as you can and detonate them in the middle of the groups."

"Affirmative." The Salarian activates his omni-tool to exact the control of his drones. By the time they approach the location where the Vorcha were previously clustered, there are only a small handful remaining. T'Gegos finds the first one and pushes him into the next nearest one. She then finishes them off with her shotgun as Lorius picks off another cluster with his assault rifle as Anoin finishes the batch off with his drone.

T'Gegos uses push to cluster Vorcha together and Lorius shoots them out until Anoin is able to send out another drone to detonate. It only takes them another minute to clear the whole simulator.

They reach the end and the simulation simply fades away, leaving the trio standing in the large empty room. Colonel Vakarian clears the double-sided mirror to allow himself to be seen. "Good improvement. You need to clarify your roles in the squad before I can officially clear you for unsupervised missions. You are dismissed from combat training for now—we will try again in a week."


	18. Chocolate Chip Cookies

Chapter 18

Shepard sits on the sofa with a glass of whiskey in one hand and her tablet in the other, still in her usual dress. She shut down the office for the day a few hours ago, but she still wanted to spend some time to review possible candidates to replace her as the council representative. In the time that she has been back one the Citadel, she had only been able to review seventeen candidates, none of which were anything that she wanted. There was no one who was going to be as good a fit as Anderson was, and if they appeared to be as good as Anderson, they would need a lot of convincing to take the job.

She lounges back, laying her head over the arm of the sofa. An aroma floods through the apartment, one she had not smelled for years. "Are those chocolate chip cookies?" she asks with pure confusion.

"Hopefully yes." Garrus responds from the rarely used kitchen.

"You're making cookies? Where did you find out how to make those?" She tosses her tablet aside as her Turian approaches in his rarely seen pajamas which expose his entire torso and the top of his hip bones. In his hands is a stereotypical looking plate of cookies that she had not seen the likes of in over a decade.

"I may have asked your mother. She gave me your grandmother's recipe and I am hoping that I have gotten them at least somewhat right, but I had not even heard of some of these ingredients. Why do I need both brown and white sugar? Are they really that different?"

"Brown sugar is stickier and better tasting. White sugar is sweet but dry. How did you get butter around here?"

"I had to make it. That I had to dig out from Liara, although I am not sure how she found it. Is it really just cream and salt?"

"I think so, but I am not really much of a cook, if you haven't figured that out by now." She retorts as she grabs one off the plate. The first bite sends her back years. It is slightly too salty, but it still tastes like home, to the time when her parents would take her to visit her grandparents back on Earth. It was always warm there, always loving. Sure, she loved the ships, but this was the thing that most could bring her back. "You definitely have some talent here."

"Well…that is a relief I suppose. I always should have another way to surprise you." He places the plate down on the sofa and slides so that he can slide her into his lap. She notices the gesture and leans into the crook of his shoulder, leaning into him with a gentle curve.

"Surprise me? I don't need any more surprises anytime soon."

"Only the good kind of surprises, I promise. This whole wedding thing has really thrown you off—it is frankly strange to see me as the steady one for once." He says, with his mandibles flaring against her neck as he speaks.

She sighs deeply. "I want nothing more than to settle down with you, but this feels more like a staged performance than an actual wedding. I know we are supposed to be a symbol for a new united galaxy, but I wish we had more say in it. I know that is selfish of me, but I don't know…I just always pictured my wedding being a certain way and it all went sideways. Like I never thought that I'd have to fight to get my mother there. Granted, I never thought that I would die, be bought back to life, and then fall in love with a Turian."

"Well, I do know a little bit about things going sideways. I mean I went from a research drone to vigilante, to chief reaper advisor, and then to a supervisor of the job I used to hate." He starts to get off on a tangent but gets back to the topic. "There is nothing really we can do about tomorrow, but we can rebel just a little bit."

"What do you mean by that?" She asks with full intrigue.

He, in response, slides out from under her and offers her his hand. She looks at it for a second before she accepts it and he eases her up to her feet. He leads her down the hall, but she notices petals of some purple flower that she had never seen before scattering on the way to their bedroom. She wants to comment but based on the unusually serious look on his face she refrains.

The bedroom had been given much the same treatment, with the same purple petals scattered onto nearly every surface. The blinds on the picture window were drawn to hide the artificial light of the station. Instead simple white candles lined every ledge in the room to give the room a warm, gentle glow.

She notices a small marble bowl sitting on the foot of the bed holding what looks to be a thick blue paint. Her face softens to a gentle, almost teary smile as she starts to figure out what is going on.

He stops them at the foot of the bed, right in front of the bowl. He turns towards her and slinks down to more easily see her with the dramatic height difference between them. He slowly reaches for the pins in her bun to release her wavy red locks, letting them rest just past her shoulders. He reaches for the edge of her dress while she undoes the clasp around her neck to help him get it off.

Eventually they stand before each other completely exposed in a way they had not been in the months they had been together. He reaches over and coats his thumbs with the paint. He then silently traces his thumbs over her cheekbones down to her jawline to draw the patterns he had put on his face nearly every day of his life. She grabs his forearms as he does it, letting him savor the moment as he draws the marks with more precision than he ever did on his own.

When he finishes he locks to her gaze, registering a level of emotion he had not seen out of anyone before. He rests his hands on either side of her face, carefully avoiding the still drying marks. She still holds onto his arms as he bends down to kiss her forehead.

She smiles; this was the wedding she had in mind.


	19. Yarrow

Chapter 19

Shepard showed up for work the morning as usual but inadvertently gets nothing done at all during the day. Commander Bailey swung in to give his daily report but she seemed nearly drunk, half giggling to herself as she seems lost in thought in a terrifyingly distracted way. He eventually backed out and simply enjoyed a day where the reporters were not constantly trying to break into her office. Half way through the day, only six hours until the wedding, one of the only people always allowed into the office lets herself in without even checking in with Bailey.

"My goodness, I never thought I would see you this zoned out." The silvery-blond notes.

"Mom!" Shepard jumps out of her seat to embrace her mother. "I wasn't sure you could make it." She pulls away but still holds her forearms. "I'm so sorry for the short notice. Unfortunately, this all became more of a political move by the council than a wedding."

"You don't seem to be phased by it, so I will let it slide. So long as I get to see you get married in a white dress, I will be happy. That being said, if I ever get the opportunity to speak my mind to the rest of the council I will." Captain Hannah Shepard says.

"I don't really mind. At first I was, but Garrus talked me down."

Captain Shepard takes a closer look at the markings on her face. Although she had never actually met the Turian, she does recognize the markings on her face as being identical to his from some pictures she found on the extranet. "Those wouldn't have to be due to some Turian ritual?"

Shepard blushes. "More or less. They basically show that I am part of clan Vakarian now." She says without explaining the details of the previous night. "His sister will be arriving soon I'm sure. Solana is one of the perkiest people I know. You will either find her endearing."

"Oh so when did you meet her?"

"She came by a couple days ago…" The duo move over to the sofa in the lobby of the office and spend the rest of their free time catching up everything that they had missed in each other's lives in the past five years.

They only get a couple of hours before Maria rushes in with Solana carrying some more of her supplies with no complaint. Solana was already dressed in the gown that Maria made for her, giving her the look of a Grecian goddess with her blue sheath dress, modeled after togas. It is fairly short but looks excellent with her long muscular legs. She painted the clan paint for the day and is wearing the necklace that is modelled after the one her mother had.

Solana snorts a quick laugh as soon as she sees the paint on Shepard's face, but she avoids saying anything; her mother does not need to know that she is technically already married.

"Hannah Shepard! Long time no see!" Maria greets. Shepard raises and eyebrow; no one greeted her mother by name. "I made you a new dress from your old dimensions. It looks like they are still spot on. I went with purple again. Last I checked it was your favorite."

"And that is why we love you Maria." Captain Shepard responds as Maria hands her the dress bag. "Always thinking ahead."

"And now, Katherine, I need you to get your dress on. Have your mother help you with the zipper. Your makeup is all set; I grabbed your hairbrush. We need to get your hair out of that bun. Solana and I will fix your bouquet and then we should be able to be there on time."

Katherine obeys the small older woman and takes the heavy dress bag from her. She wonders how the woman was able to carry it across the space station so easily. She heads behind the divider and slides the slip on before even trying to fight with the heavy pile of lace hiding in the back of the bag. Her mother gets changed quickly into the simple sheath dress and then easily lifts the wedding dress over her daughter's head and zips it up for her. As soon it is all set, Hannah steps back to get a full view of the transformation and the hardened military officer stands teary eyed before her dolled up daughter.

"You modeled it after my dress? It looks exactly as I remember it." Captain Shepard barely holds it together.

Maria sets up the mirror again and has Solana move away the divider. Commander Shepard finally gets a glimpse at the completed image. The dress is fitted through the torso, with slight corseting that hurts her ever damaged ribs, and then slowly flares out to make a gentle swooping train that neatly circles around her feet. It could not be any simpler, but that makes her like it all the more. She could never wear something too flashy, and having a strapless dress was less demure than she would wear on a typical day. This was perfect.

Shepard remembers the chain on her neck and quickly decides to wear it on her wrist, so the tree emblem will hang below her bouquet. This leaves her collarbone completely bare, as she knows Garrus prefers it.

Maria hands Shepard the bouquet, with the same flowers as from last night. She blushes immediately at the sight of them and disguises it by smelling them instead.

"Did Garrus pick those?" Solana asks Maria.

"Yes, I believe he said they were yarrow, but it isn't a strain I know of. Earth yarrow is much smaller, but they do look similar otherwise. I did hide a bit of myrtle in there for good luck though, as I do for all ceremonies."

"Those used to grow all over our region on Palevan." She says wistfully.

"No wonder he insisted on picking those. This is a wholly human tradition; having a bit of his home is a lovely touch." Captain Shepard inputs.

Maria checks the time on her omni-tool. "We have to leave now or we will throw everything off."

Despite her confusion at the sudden rush, Shepard allows herself to be corralled into a taxi.


	20. Tradition

Chapter 20

The taxi lands on a part of the Presidium that she had only seen once before while wandering around the first time she had ever been on the space station, but back then it did not look like this. It was not a gazebo per say, but there was an archway made of white terraced wood with a variety of artificial flowers growing in and around it. She doesn't recognize many of them, but she can notice more of the yarrow mixed with roses, ivies, and edelweiss. She notices a couple of species of flowers that she had only seen on Eden Prime that seem to be oversized heliotrope. Despite the eclectic variety, it all works together as if a grandmother had spent years slaving over the careful arrangement.

As soon as she steps out of the taxi, some biotics—human and Asari—set up a dome barrier where inside is an artificial sunset. Shepard smiles away tears, glad that she did not have to wear heavy makeup along with her new markings. "Maria, how did you do this?"

The old woman smirks; "I told you already that I love your husband. He asked how things were going and since I will not lie to a client, I told him how the Asari were bogarting the whole thing and he somehow arranged audience with Tevos and said that any extreme variation from the human tradition would possibly insult the humans and put additional aid to her refugees possibly at jeopardy. Since she couldn't check with the human council member, she consulted Sparatus, who simply told her to do whatever Garrus said. His way ended up being cheaper anyways as the biotics holding the barrier were simply glad to be invited."

"Wait, he arranged all this?" Shepard asks, nearly close to tears.

"I believe his exact argument was the you had sacrificed enough and that you could agree to doing things on the Council's time table, but nothing else should have to deviate away from what you wanted." Maria hands the bride a handkerchief from her pocket to wipe away the sweet tears before they can stain her cheeks. "Now, you two need to get to your seats so we can get this thing moving."

Captain Shepard squeezes her daughter's hand before she walks down the side of the seating area instead of down the central aisle. Solana follows her, still not entirely sure what is going on, but she does give an attempt at a thumbs up at Shepard before she goes. This makes Shepard laugh slightly and effectively makes the tears stop.

Maria cues to someone to get things moving, but she cannot tell who. No one coordinated music as half the species in attendance would likely just be confused by it. Still, as soon as she moves into the center, the whole crowd knows to stand and watch.

She never knew the specific walk that she was supposedly expected to do, so she just moves as gracefully as she can, taking her time to recognize each person that she knew in the crowd.

Near the back, Grunt and Wrex Urdnot stand with confusion, struggling to ignore the urge to scratch at where the formalwear hit the backs of their necks, although Wrex seemed to be slightly more successful at the endeavor than the far younger Krogan. Not far from them, Zaeed is hiding as anonymously as he can in a group of Alliance soldiers who arrived that morning. On the other side of aisle, the Normandy crew from Earth has clumped together in the back with the Cerberus rejects hiding amongst them. She briefly even notices a flicker of light indicating that Kasumi even decided to view.

She gets halfway down when she identifies the people in the front; Admiral Hackett, her mother, Solana, Tali, Javik, Joker, and Edi are sitting in a row. On the opposite side, the Council members sit, along with Primarch Victus, and a couple other C Sec higher ups that she had yet to meet. On the outside edge of each section is a single empty seat. She knows immediately that these must have been for Mordin and Anderson, making her smile once again as even those dear to her who could not make it were represented.

Somehow, someone who had only recently learned what a wedding was managed to get every small detail correct. She dares only to look at her groom when her back is to the rest of the crowd. She tries to toughen herself to maintain her reputation as a stoic commander, but she already knows that she will fail.

Garrus is standing underneath the arch with the fountain reflecting the artificial sunset behind him. Somehow, he managed to find a three-piece suit in a classic dark gray with a blue handkerchief in his pocket. He stands with a serene but gentle expression that she had become accustomed to seeing since the first time they were alone together.

"Did I get it right?" He asks her no louder than a whisper as she grabs his hand, signaling for the crowd to sit down.

"How did you even know?" She asks with a smile that causes her to tear up again.

Liara notices their question, but still moves them along with a slight clearing of her throat. She stands slightly behind them in a formal Asari dress. Shepard had not even noticed but was still pleased that one of her closest friends would be officiating. The couple turn their attention to her, but Shepard still leaves her pinky entwined around his outer finger.

"Thank you everyone for sparing some time out of your busy schedules to attend this sacred event." Liara begins but Shepard barely listens. Her eyes flit back over to her groom, who thankfully is completely focused on her every word.

"After years of warring conflict between the all species in the galaxy, we finally have the opportunity to establish long overdue peace and cooperation. The efforts of the Normandy best exemplify what the different skills of each species can accomplish under the patient and strong guidance of Commander Katherine Shepard, who no matter what challenge was presented, would negotiate the best outcome for all parties involved, even putting aside what would best accomplish her goals." And that was putting it delicately.

"She worked until her untimely death, and then returned with renewed purpose, building a team that she could trust to work in impossible conditions to protect a galaxy obviously in peril. The first member she wanted on the squad was the Turian before me, who she did not realize that she was already in love with."

Well she knew she had some sort of feelings for him—she was just unable to recognize what they were at that point. She trusted him more than anyone and knew that he would be a good stabilizer for her stressful mission. This is however news to Garrus, but he immediately accepts it with a smile.

"Garrus Vakarian was slow to recognize the attention, to the point where I am sure that he was the last to understand her intentions." That was only mostly true—Grunt did not figure it out until after they defeated the Collectors. "He was the balance to the commander; her strength and focus were mirrored by his precision and own leadership skills which pushed the two of them to be the best strategists possible as well as pushing them closer together, little by little."

Liara continues to explain how their relationship progressed though their time together, making it sound more romantic than Shepard had thought it was. Garrus was secretly a romantic sure, but she saw it more as an eventuality in the end, that she belonged by his side as their commonalities became more apparent.

"These two have a love that should be envied by anyone who sees it. They overcame more barriers than anyone should ever have to face and supported each other through each one with dignity and strength. It is because of this that I am more than glad to bind them here together until death can permanently part them."

Shepard gets teary eyed at this point, but desperately tries to hide it. Liara signal for them to turn to each other.

"Now, Colonel Garrus Vakarian, do you take Commander Katherine Shepard to be your lawfully wedded wife, in sickness and health, until the spirits send your souls to eternity?"

The change in the usual words are slight but significant as they are the only way that Liara could have thought of to include the Turian beliefs into the ceremony.

"I do." He says the words with formality with the most sincere declaration that she would ever hear.

"And Commander Katherine Shepard, do you take Colonel Garrus Vakarian as your lawfully wedded husband, in sickness and in health, until death parts you?"

"I do." She responds, with a tone that is sweeter but more sure than her many directives that she had given on the Normandy.

"With that, I now pronounce you husband and wife. You may now kiss the bride."

Garrus wraps his tremendously long arms around her small waist to easily lift her up to his height in a tight embrace. She cradles his face with her scarred hands to hold him close for the kiss that would be seen across the galaxy.


	21. Practicing

Chapter 21

"So why exactly are we back here? The Colonel should not be back in for another two days." Lieutenant Lorius asks as T'Gegos drags he and Specialist Anoin to the combat simulator after their patrols. Per usual, Anoin seems indifferent to the whole situation, but he nods his head along with his question.

"As much as I hate to admit it, but you are slightly better suited to lead combat missions than I am, at least for now. We need to do a trial run with different scenarios with your lead instead of mine. With our evidence pile growing the way it is, we need to be able to track our leads before they go cold, so we need to get cleared for combat." The Asari explains.

"You're giving up combat leader?" The incredulity creeps into his voice without meaning to.

"Just to get us certified—I am not so sure on how you will handle more complex situations. Your record does not read too well. Besides, I can handle solo targets better than you."

"Anoin, are you okay with that?" The Turian asks their nearly silent member.

"Don't see choice. Missing weapon count to two-hundred and twenty-seven. Need to start moving before gets to thousands." The Salarian answers with a shrug.

"Alright." He nods as he starts to put his armor on over his work clothes. "What skills have you specialized? I only have marksman, and a couple of ammo techniques." He quickly starts trying to take inventory, not mentioning how this should have been the first thing T'Gegos did when she had the squad. Asari typically are all biotics with nearly homogeneous selections of skills.

"Shockwave, throw specialized to single target, and singularity." The Asari lists with a slightly lowered brow.

"But not warp?" The Turian clarifies.

"Well yes, but I prefer not to use it. Close combat is too hazardous."

"You are the only one that can use close combat so unfortunately if it comes to it I am going to need you to use it." Lorius says with a slightly sympathetic tone.

"Fine." She speaks through gritted teeth.

"Specialist?" He turns his attention to the Salarian.

"Overload, sabotage, combat drone, and sentry turrets."

The Turian's head snaps back. "Sentry turrets? What's your recharge on that?"

"One per hour and drones down for two minutes."

"I knew you were a high-ranking engineer but I didn't realize that you were that high up." The Asari comments, equally surprised.

The Salarian simply shrugs in response.

"Well, that changes things a bit. No matter what, we need to keep Anoin out of combat as he can salvage things remotely when everything hits the fan. I will focus my attention picking off targets so none of them get to you. If any get too close to you T'Gegos, do whatever you can to push them away or get them down, but be prepared to retreat when either I detonate a grenade or when Anoin sets off his drone. When we find the final target, Anoin will set up his turret. If we are wrong about whether it is the final target, we will lure them back to the turret. Other than that, we will play everything more or less by ear."

"Simulation starts in thirty seconds."

"Alright."

"T'Gegos—treat your targets as you would have when you were in the security for now. We will play support so you don't get hit." Lorius suggests as they line up at the starting position.

"I will." She responds, still dubious about the plan.

The ten second countdown begins. Lorius stays to the left, T'Gegos stays in the middle and Anoin is on the right. The starting timer begins and the simulation appears. This time it is some sort of Alliance ship that has the airlock in a strangely eerie disarray.

"Hug the crates whenever you can; check the corners before advancing. Do not head into the next room without the rest of the squad." Lorius advises before he lines up his scope. "Anoin, send a drone ahead."

The Salarian does not need to be told twice. "Appears to be husks. Tight quarters. Roughly sixty. No obvious source or sign of Geth." He reports. "Detonating now."

"Okay T'Gegos, I have the shot lined up. Open the door and then you can warp back. Knowing Geth they should start flooding in. Instead of your drones, use sabotage to stun them. Then between your shockwaves and my bullets it should be fairly straightforward."

The Asari follows the order and then ends right back beside the Turian. They only have to wait a couple of seconds before they start streaming in. T'Gegos readies her hand gun and lines it along the left side of the crate. A wave of ten husks rush forward. As planned, Anoin disables them a bit with his sabotage, Lorius shoots them, and T'Gegos pushes the surviving husks as far back as possible. The first four waves are cleared in the front room, before they stop rushing forward.

"Specialist, what is the status?" Lorius asks. Husks always rush towards noise, so the sound of their guns and other husks attacking should flush all the other husks towards them as well.

He sends his drone out again. "Parameters were modified. Fifteen more husks guarding a Geth prime. Different layout as well."

"Someone outside must have done a manual override to increase the simulation type." T'Gegos muses.

"Either way, it doesn't change our approach much. Anoin, I need you to focus overload on the Geth prime to destroy its shields."

"Affirmative."

"And T'Gegos, would you rather work on the husks or the Geth Prime?"

She is briefly taken aback by the fact that she was even asked. "Probably best if I do the husks. Your guns do more damage and my biotics will not be that useful against the Geth prime."

"Alright. Let's move."

They head down the hallway and into the last open room. This room has less cover than would be preferred as there is only one long crate in front of the room and two freestanding pipes near the back. Once all three of them have passed through the doorway, it closes, not even giving them the option to retreat back there. The Geth prime notices them right away and loads the first shot. Anoin immediately ducks down beneath the crate and works on generating a sentry turret. It was not what Lorius had asked for but given the opportune layout of the room the Turian appreciates the judgement call.

"Using disruptor rounds." Lorius announces as he quickly changes out his ammo.

T'Gegos heads behind the crate as well, leaving only the Turian out of cover. "What are you doing? Get down!" The Asari tries to direct.

"Can't. Then he'd shoot the crate and possibly destroy our only real cover."

He watches the Geth carefully to see how close to discharging his cannon he is. The husks move towards him as well, but he only focuses on the oversized opponent. T'Gegos only watches as Lorius waits for the Geth to start discharging before he rolls out of the way and shoots his first bullet to weaken his outermost shields.

Only then does she regain focus enough to send a focused orb of anti-gravity to pull five of the husks off the ground. She waits until the orb drops them to the ground before casting shockwave to slam them into the wall and effectively destroying them. The Geth prime barely focused on her, still aiming at the Turian who only dodged them at the last possible second.

"Anoin, how much longer on the turret?" She shouts to him.

"Thirty seconds, then another thirty seconds for cool down." He says, focusing on working with his omni-tool.

She looks over to see five of the husks heading towards Lorius, while the other five are heading her way. Without pause, she uses warp to stop with a burst of energy in the middle of the throng, bringing the other five over with her as well. The burst of energy disorients the husks but does not disable them. She warps to the opposite back corner to hide briefly behind the pipe managing to draw all ten remaining husks towards her.

"Anoin, have the turret get the husks before we deal with the Geth. The shields should be down in a couple more shots." Lorius updates as he dodges yet another oversized shot.

"Online." The Salarian updates.

The turret quickly activates and focuses a steady stream of shots towards the throng of husks. As soon as T'Gegos notices the aid, she sends a shockwave out to push them more into the line of fire for the turret. She waits to send out another singularity orb as she anticipates the orb would disrupt the flow of the ammo. She just readies her shotgun and begins shooting at the husks but does less damage than the turret.

Specialist Anoin runs sabotage on the Geth, but his current training does not allow for the laser to be completely disabled. Instead, it makes the attacks weaker but more frequent. Lieutenant Lorius uses one more set of disruptor ammo to finally take down its shields, leaving just its considerable armor to be broken through. He struggles a bit more to keep dodging, but still manages to get a couple of good hits.

"Will the next sabotage destroy the weapon?" The Turian asks as he barely has enough time to dodge between each attack.

"No guarantee. Sending drone instead."

Lieutenant T'Gegos holds her position. Between her shotgun and the turret, she only has two left and they are struggling to keep focus on her. She blasts a shockwave towards them to finish them off once and for all. She pauses briefly to catch her breath before, to her surprise, she warps towards the Geth and holds her shotgun against his chest. This leaves the Geth taking damage from all directions; one side from the drone, one side from the turret, one side from Lieutenant Lorius, and finally from Lieutenant T'Gegos. At this point it only takes a minute for the armor to completely be destroyed and the opponent to topple and the simulation to end.

"That went well." T'Gegos says as she catches her breath from her adrenaline rush.

"Yes, I would agree." A familiar voice says from the viewing window. The trio look up to see the Colonel in his casual clothes. "Enough to clear you for combat missions. Good work."


	22. Request

Chapter 22

Shepard starts reading some of the many applicant files for the new human council member. She finally had automated the rest of the procedures and she has written out plans for each colony. She has not gotten complete updates from all the colonies yet, but she anticipated each resource and found solutions for each one. At this point, the moment a colony calls to ask for aid all anyone must do is check the page in the binder to see what to do, as well as an emergency protocol if a string of six countermeasures have to be used. She was proud of her planning, and even took the time to draft emails to other council members for the few measures that would require them.

For now, all she had to do is wait and go through the ever-growing stack of possible applicants for the position. Most of them were rejected after just a couple of lines, but enough of them required deeper reading that it would take a while. At this point, no one has been attractive enough for an interview. At least now she can largely focus on it; the only other thing that she must do is attend Council meetings.

She is reading on the balcony when Commander Bailey calls her. "Shepard—a Solana Vakarian is requesting a meeting with you."

"She is always welcome. Send her in—thank you."

Shepard straightens up her stack of resumes and drops them on her desk before the Turian enters, now in her medic uniform.

"Sorry to bother you Katherine, but I did not know where else to go. I mean I went to the Turian embassy, but they don't have resources, we don't have a Specter on world, and Sparatus thinks it is too small to bother with." Solana starts to explain nearly on one breath. Shepard briefly pauses at the fact that Solana refers to her by her first name, but brushes it aside when she considers that she is family.

"It's fine. I can make time; what do you need?" Shepard says with a calming wave.

"Well we had a ship of one-hundred eighty-four refugees that were heading back to Oma Ker with about three months of supplies. We have it on record that they made the jump to the Aethon Cluster, but they never made it to Oma Ker, even though it should have been there four days ago. We are just now recovering from the Reaper attacks and the ship would have been just the third one to return to Oma Ker and its supplies would be invaluable." She explains as she shows a holographic image of the ship.

"To not only your people, but to pirates as well. I imagine they were boarded shortly after the jump." Shepard explains. As part of the fallout from the war, she expected an influx of pirates, especially for the Terminus Systems. Aethon Cluster is much closer than that, but if someone knew that the ship had resources, it would put a target on it for pirates for sure.

"I don't know if the refugees are still alive, or if the resources were all taken, or if the ship was stolen all together, but we would be remiss if we did not check. We lost too many ships, too many people, and too many supplies. If anything can be saved, we should."

"I will look into it." She responds without a second thought.

"You will? I wasn't sure if you had any time or if you were even interested." The Turian seems excited by the generosity.

"Yes. I need some combat and I don't see why I couldn't perform my duties aboard the Normandy. Plus, as a Specter I can take on any mission that I feel would benefit the Council or a represented species. I can give you news within three days and be back in a week." Anything would be better than being stuck entirely monitoring the office.

"Thank you Katherine—you are the best." Solana says enthusiastically.

"Frankly you are doing me a favor. I'll sort out the rest. I'm sure you are busy with the all the Turian refugees. If I had anything else I could spare, you know I would."

"I know Katherine. I meant to tell you earlier, but I am really glad my brother found you before he ended up on some destructive streak."

"And going on multiple suicide missions was any better?" Shepard smiles at the sentimentality, despite her joke.

"Oddly enough, yes. You should have seen him five years ago—he knew he was the best at combat and was more than happy to prove it. Now he seems settled down and more focused."

This immediately reminds Shepard of the last conversation she had with him before she went to activate the Crucible, about his desire to have a family and retire somewhere tropical, even though she knew that he never would retire so young. "I can see that."

"Alright, I'm off. Thanks again Katherine." Solana leaves.

Shepard pages Commander Bailey.

"Yes Katherine?" he says jokingly.

"Shepard or Vakarian. Not Katherine." She sighs, knowing to expect this level of sarcasm from him. "Can you come in here?"

He enters the room with minimal delay. Shepard hands him the binder as soon as he walks in. "What's this?" He questions before he even glances at the cover.

"It is the protocol for each probable request from each of the human colonies. If a colony calls requesting aid, turn to the page for that colony and then find the line for that material to find out what to do." She explains. "If a colony is under attack, contact myself and Alenko immediately and one of us will coordinate a defense protocol, but I doubt we will see anything more than a possible pirate raid."

"And why are you giving me this?" He asks with annoyance.

"I need you to be my stand in for the next week. You won't have to make any decisions; you literally will just have to read the page in the binder. I will still go to meetings via hologram and I already automated all other requests. Response overrides can wait until after I get back."

"And who will deal with media?"

"Exactly who you think Armando-Owen."

He sighs, now regretting his joke. "Alright Shepard. I will stand in."

"Good. I am going to get packed."


	23. Investigation

Chapter 23

The evidence lockup machine room had no light; no one goes back there aside from the keepers and the occasional employee unclogging a jam. It was not meant for people to manually search through files, especially not for an extended amount of time. Lorius and T'Gegos work with the lights in their omni-tools as they search through the cases.

"So how exactly does a Turian officer end up all the way at tier seven?" T'Gegos says after over an hour of working in silence.

"How exactly did you find that out?" He asks after a brief pause, but immediately continues going through the box.

"It's public record. You can literally look it up for anyone, like how the Colonel is rank twenty-three and Commander Shepard-Vakarian is rank twenty-five—although it is interesting that they put her in the hierarchy even though she is not a Turian." The Asari reports, moving on to her next crate.

"Let's just say that my track record in the Turian military was less than stellar." He deflects. "And she is ranked because she officially joined the clan. If they just did the human wedding , she would not have, but since she did the joining ceremony, she is."

"And what exactly is the joining ceremony?"

He smirks and taunts, "wouldn't you like to know? Get me really drunk and I may show you."

"No thanks, but I am guessing it is hush-hush." She pulls another crate, reading the tablet on the crate to find the inventory.

"We don't talk about it. It is one of those things that everyone knows about but there is no real protocol for how you do it. It is all personal preference and depends how formal the relationship is really. I don't even know how my parents' went." He explains. "If you can ask me that, I get to ask you what species your father was."

"That is none of your business."

"It's on your file. I could look it up like you looked up my tier." He threatens as he gets the next crate.

She sighs and looks away from her active crate. "He was a Krogan."

The Turian does not respond, but simply double checks his crate's tablet.

"What, is it that surprising?" She asks, just now turning towards him.

"Oh, no, that actually makes a lot of sense. Has the name Harkin been on any of your crates?"

She checks her list, which they agreed to keep on paper, so it cannot easily be hacked into. "Of my last fifty crates that were missing weapons, seven were booked by him." She looks at the list more completely. "The whole time that we have been doing this, his name is the only one that shows up more than five times."

"Anoin, are you busy?" Lorius activates his com-link.

"Not at all."

"Can you pull up all the information you have on a Harkin? No first name given." The Turian requests.

"Bad record. One of first human officers at C Sec, but corrupt. Bribery, rough interrogations, theft, and drug abuse. Eventually was arrested for racketeering by Commander Shepard, along with Garrus Vakarian and Tali'Zorah nar Rayya. Currently serving a twenty year sentence." He pulls up the prison records and easily finds the live feed of his cell. "Uh oh."

"Uh oh? What is 'uh oh' Specialist?" Lorius asks.

"Looped feed."

"You have got to be kidding." The Turian sighs. "Can you override to confirm?"

"Already done. It's an empty cell." He reports. "I can't know for how long without watching all the feed and that could alert someone that we are looking into him." The video access to the prisoner feed was not recorded, but it does always let someone know when someone else is also watching.

"Log off now. We can figure the rest out." Lorius says.

"So Harkin is our guy?" T'Gegos muses. "He doesn't seem smart enough to coordinate all this, plus his files are too obvious."

"He is likely involved though, or being used as a patsy. We still need to look into it. Plus, we now need to do an audit of all the prison cells."

"How? It will take awhile to tell if the feeds are looped, and we can't just walk in and search." The Asari questions.

"I will look into it to see if I know anyone on staff there." Lorius plans. Luckily, most of the prison guards on the Citadel are Turians, and many of them know his name for better or worse.

"Specialist, do you still know the Colonel's credentials?" T'Gegos asks, causing the Turian to raise an eyebrow.

"Yes, unless he changed them in the last week."

"Can you use them to get his copy of the files on Harkin?"

"Huh, you are going onto the dark-side now?"

"This job doesn't allow us to follow the rules."


	24. Pirates

Chapter 24

The trip to the Aethon Cluster is uneventful. Edi and Joker were in the cockpit, and Liara was working with Javik to analyze some artifacts he recovered on his last trip out. This left Shepard to spend the trip between hanging out with Doctor Chakwas and prepping for her upcoming mission, in a boring combination that almost made her wish that she was back on the Citadel, but only almost.

The Turian ship was easy enough to find; as she suspected it was stashed in the asteroid belt on the other side of the orbit of Oma Ker. It was the easiest way to stash the ship without moving it anywhere. She waits in the airlock for Liara and Edi to be ready. Based on the clanging she can hear on the other side of the airlock, she will likely need their assistance. Her gut was right; this seems like pirates. She only preps her handgun, the M6-Carnifex, which she would like a bit better if it were weighted just a bit better.

As soon as Liara and Edi get to the airlock, Shepard starts the sequence to equalize the pressure and air quality of the two ships, which due to the similar conditions does not take more than a minute.

The main deck of the ship is empty, with no sign of the refugees anywhere near the command center. The squad holds in tight formation. Although they have worked together enough times to know exactly how far they can still be to get optimal support. At first she finds it odd, but as soon as she realizes that this is their first combat since they nearly died protecting the galaxy. They immediately head towards the cockpit to prevent the ship from running into an asteroid or worse, bashing the Normandy into an asteroid.

There are only two people in the cockpit. Shepard uses lift to pull the pseudo-pilots out of their chairs. As soon as they verify that they are not Turian, Liara knocks them unconscious in a stasis field and Edi locks them out of the cockpit.

"Batarian pirates." Liara reports sadly.

"Is it bad that I was hoping that I was wrong?" Shepard states.

"Eighty-two percent of all known active pirate are Batarian. The odds were against you being incorrect Shepard." Edi reports, but does not ease the situation.

"Yes, but how are we going to reintegrate them when so many are known to be criminals." She sighs. "Edi, how is this ship laid out?"

"Two more decks below. I am downloading the map to your Omni-tool." She then activates her radio to link to the Normandy. "Jeff, you now have complete control of both ships."

"Aw, you do it so much better."

"They can hear you Jeff." Shepard chuckles to herself and heads towards the access crawlspace to avoid the obvious ambush possible from the elevator.

The crawlspace sends them out to the front nose of the next floor, right behind the crew's quarters where five of the pirates are sitting around a table. Shepard does not attack right away. "Hello there," she says casually.

The pirates hop to their feet and try to reach their weapons.

"Now, I know you know who I am, and I don't feel like killing all of you so if you hand your weapons to Doctor T'Soni, you can wait right here while we get this ship back to the rightful owners."

The Batarians exchange glances with each other. After a shrug, they hand their weapons over to Liara. As soon Liara has sent the weapons out the trash shoot, Edi scans them to verify that they are now unarmed. As soon as Edi gives the 'all clear' nod, the trio walk out of the room and lock the door behind them. At this point, they are still undetected, so instead of shooting anyone, they just lock the doors to each of the quarters and lounges. Next they meander over to the mess hall where three more are eating a meal far more lavish than needed for the small group.

On Shepard's orders, each of her squad lines their sight up to each of their heads. They each then flip a switch for a guiding light to appear where the aims are lined. It takes just a moment for the pirates to notice. They panic and do not even reach for the weapons on their backplates; they just freeze with their utensils in hand.

"Surrender or we shoot." Shepard orders simply. "We have already handled the rest of your crew on this deck." She does not clarify that they only did this by locking them into whatever rooms they we in.

They obey, kneeling on the ground with their hands on the back of their heads. With only a nod to signal, Liara goes to remove their weapons from their back plates and tosses them into the trash shoot.

"Now, how many more are on the lower deck?"

"Four guarding the hostages."

"They are all still alive?" She asks.

"We need workers on Khar'shan. We were trying to find a way to mask the ship's identity to get back to the Harsa system." The apparent leader says.

"What is your name Captain?" Shepard holsters her weapon for a moment.

"Barat." He answers in confusion.

"And where is your ship?"

"It has already left the system-the Tapesh."

"I am going to have my companion confirm that, but if I can verify that you have no casualties, I will personally arrange for your crew to get back to your system or onto the Citadel." She explains simply.

"Why would you of all people do that?" He asks.

Shepard should have expected this question. To the Batarians, she was public enemy number one after she blew up the Bahak system. Even if the Council now agreed with her decision, it made sense that they would make it personal. "We had no idea that anyone was still alive on Khar'shan. We thought it was decimated by the Reaper attacks, so we had not been coordinating aid for it, so I understand your desperation. No one was killed, and I see no damage to this ship, so we will make this right. I am not saying that you will not be punished, but I can do my best to make sure that whoever judges you will sympathize with you. In exchange, I need you to allow me to send a crew of humans to simply go and assess the situation, so we can present the Council with an unbiased representation of what you need, and I need you to get your guards up here."

"I think my superiors can approve of those terms."

Shepard hands Barat his com-link with an approving smile.

"This is Captain Barat. Report to the mess hall for daily debriefing." He gives the simplest command possible for them to not question him.

Liara and Edi immediately take positions on either side of the door. The door quickly opens to show the last four Batarians on the ship. They react quickly to ready their weapons, but are confused when they are not shot at.

"We're surrendering. Give them your weapons." The Captain says from his position, now moving his hands off his head. "Do not resist or I will pull the trigger on you myself." The guards cooperate immediately.

"Thank you, Captain." Shepard stands up, still with no weapon. "Doctor T'Soni, please check on the refugees. Edi, how is the ship doing on fuel?"

"Limited, but can make trip to Oma Ker."

"Okay. Captain Barat, would you like to make the announcement, or shall I?"

"I will give you the honor."

She nods and activates the intercom. "This is Commander Shepard of the Alliance Navy. This ship is being returned to Oma Ker along with its supplies. You are all under my authority until we get you back to the Citadel, and then back to Khar'shan. You will not be harmed if you cooperate while we move you all to the Normandy, and I will continue to work with your captain to ensure that Khar'shan gets the supplies needed."


	25. Target Practice

Chapter 25

Garrus holds his rifle tight into the crook of his shoulder and takes the recoil with each shot to the mobile target. He uses up the clip on his custom rifle, and then immediately switches to a Krysae rifle with his own modified stock. He does not add any recoil dampener to it, but he does quickly stick on a hard rubber stopper to the end. He switches to a fresh target with a single button and continues his target practice.

Lorius heads into the private and with his tablet ready. Garrus finishes another clip before stopping to address him. He stands with his weight on one leg in a posture far too casual for a superior addressing his subordinate. Lieutenant Lorius has slowly been adjusting to it but was doing slightly better than Lieutenant T'Soni. "Every sign indicates that Harkin is back as Fade; we even found a couple of people that he made disappear, but we cannot find him."

"Did you check the third warehouse district?" Garrus suggests as he looks at their compiled evidence.

"Yes, but it is empty. Completely automated." Lorius pulls up the live security feed of his old hideout.

Sure enough, the foreground is simply a few crates tucked into a corner. Through the window, Garrus can make out the conveyor belt moving and the mechs moving crates. It is still a video, but after only seconds of watching he zooms in on a label on one of the crates in the corner. It does not improve the resolution, but it does make it easier to focus just on the pixels of the label. "This is a looped feed," he says not long after.

"How do you know that? Anoin usually stuff like that catches that."

"See that label?" He turns the screen towards his subordinate. "That is for the Sybil Corporation. I can't possibly make out a date, but the Sybil Corporation went shut down over a year ago so that crate should not be there today. I believe the feed has been looped on a daily basis so the usual watching for a few minutes will not work. If you try to manually change a setting on the camera, you can sometimes end the loop…" Garrus pulls up a hidden menu and moves the camera in a circle and then plays with the lighting function, but quickly reverts the settings back. As soon as it settles, a still of different crates is apparent. Garrus snickers, "someone also attached a picture to the camera before they moved in. Probably the simplest counter-measure out there, but it still tells us that someone is hiding something there."

"And since it was his old hideout and he has not proven to be the smartest of criminals so far, he is likely the one hiding there." Lorius postulates.

"You may be able to verify by checking the video archives, but they may not have been keeping them." Garrus pulls up the menu again and pulls up the video feed from the previous day. He jumps to the same time and finds and identical screen as he saw before. "Yup, looped."

"How did you get that menu?"

"Triple tap on the recording icon."

Lorius repeats the process to get the menu himself. "Cool." The Turian freezes briefly. "I mean, thank you."

The Colonel snickers. "Cool is perfectly fine with me." He collects himself and gets back to business. "Are you planning a raid then?"

"Most likely tomorrow—if he noticed that he camera changed he may bolt, but it will take him time to clean up before he does. In case he is a more major player in the whole thing, which I doubt, we should do it after hours. Once we verify that he was not a major player, then we will apply for overtime."

"Good call but see what T'Gegos wants to do for the raid. Solo arrests are her specialty. I would offer to join to let Specialist Anoin sit it out, but I rather have dinner with my wife and I know you can handle it."

"You were on Shepard's team when he was arrested last time—what forces do you anticipate that he will have?" Lorius adds almost as an afterthought.

"Last time he had Blue Suns mercenaries and a variety of mechs. I don't think he will have many mercenaries, but I would expect LOKI and YMIR. He had a couple of FENRIS last time, but they have been largely decommissioned so maybe there will only be one or two." He explains. "Also, Harkin hates me. I may have head-butted him. Clearly I should have shot him though."

Lorius smirks despite himself. "I will let them know." Lorius glances over at Garrus's target as he packs up and Garrus reloads the Krysae. He only notices one hole in the target. He looks over and still sees only one hole in the other as well. "You are getting that accuracy with the Krysae?" The Krysae is the standard issue rifle for the Turian military for all starting sharpshooters. Its accuracy and damage were marginal at best. It was heavy and slow, but everyone knew it well.

"You have to learn to make it work for you. I can outshoot even Kath—Shepard with this baby now."

"And on that one too?" he refers to the other target.

"No. I used my custom piece on that. Starting from the M-98 Widow—custom stock, recoil dampers, sight, and ammo. It's on the table if you want to check it. Might give you inspiration to fix your own piece."

Lorius puts down the tablet and picks up the gun instead. He lines it into the crook of his shoulder and finds that for once it does not seem insanely short; he would only need to add another half inch to make it perfect. He rotates it a bit against his arm; for such a typically heavy weapon, it is surprisingly light. "It's not a single-shot?"

"Single-shot is useless in combat. Converted it to semi-automatic first chance I got. Same damage output, possibly higher." He says as he pulls up another target next to his own making them both stationary.

"This sight sucks."

"Oh, yeah, that. I forgot. I tinted it yellow to counterbalance the blue of the visor. Works fine, just yellow."

Lorius shrugs and lines up the shot. For the first time in a while, he gets the bullseye the first time. He finishes the clip and only has a margin of deviation to make a slightly larger hole in the target. "Spirits, that has a kick to it."

"Couldn't mitigate the recoil anymore than that unfortunately. You adjust after awhile though." He says as he uses his clip to make a pinhole in his target. "You can't blame the gun for your shortcomings, but I always keep an extra stopper with me in case I have to change guns. Turians have long arms—you more than most—so it helps to be prepared." He pulls the piece of rubber right off the edge of the Krysae.

"Where did you find this?"

"It's the stock floor tile that we used with the last remodel—I just cut it to size and stack them to the right thickness. Omni-gel will work for adhesive whenever you need it. You should be able to find some more in the storage closet. Just grab some when you next need a pen."

"Thank you Vakarian."

"It's Garrus, but it's a start."


	26. New Staff

Chapter 26

"Actus for two." Shepard-Vakarian waits at the hostess's booth where the surly Batarian is on duty once again.

"Welcome. I'll take you to your table." She does not say the words politely, but she does grab the correct menu for once. The Batarian leads her to the same table they always go to, and once again Garrus is late, like he had been for seven of the eleven days that they had been married, and three of those days she was not even on world. Still, she does not mind as she left him waiting plenty of times.

Shepard-Vakarian does not look at the menu but rather adjusts the leather edge of her dress so it lays flat on her thigh. She has the menu basically memorized at this point but will likely get the steak once again.

Bassius comes over with a teenage human with him in the same uniform. "Hello Katherine, how are you doing? I haven't seen you in a couple days." He greets the way she told him to, despite his initial hesitation.

"Good, I just had to deal with a situation by Oma Ker." She answers with a smile. "Do you have a trainee with you today?"

"Yes, Bolan—he is the Volus who owns this place—was asked to put this guy on staff in exchange for a new investor. This is Victor, he will be helping me out today." As Bassius speaks, Victor fills her glass with water from the pitcher.

"Gotcha. Welcome Victor—if you are half as good as Bassius here you will be fine." Shepard says politely, but Victor barely even smiles at that.

"Whiskey today?" Bassius asks with a smile.

"Actually I'm thinking a red wine. Dealer's choice. I imagine Garrus will want his brandy waiting for him though."

"Right away." The waiters bow their heads slightly before they head back into the kitchen.

Shepard-Vakarian then sits back with her tablet to go through the backlash from her decision with the Batarian pirates. At the moment, the crew is all waiting for the next ship to be sent to Khar'shan but Barat agreed to wait on the Citadel to help coordinate support for the Batarians. Otherwise, she just had to follow up on the few updates that Bailey had to make, which luckily was just one three way trade for water from Trident to Earth in exchange for platinum from Gei Hinnom to Trident, and excavation machinery from Earth to Gei Hinnom. As much as she hates it, she may have to move everyone off of Gei Hinnom and onto Trident; there are only twelve thousand people on Gei Hinnom versus nearly seven million on Trident. At this point, she could just call Gei Hinnom a colony for research only and strip it of resources, but she is not sure if it is even enough of a detriment to worry about. Still, she has to keep it on her radar.

She drinks a bit of water as she continues to browse her tablet. She gets halfway through an article on refugees returning home when she starts to hear yelling from the kitchen. She immediately grabs her sidearm—she never leaves home without it—and goes to investigate.

Bassius rushes out towards Katherine and without another word he punches her in the stomach, forcing her to vomit all over the rubbery floor. While she gets back on her feet, Victor rushes out with a shotgun aimed at Bassius and a glare on his face. Bassius grabs a knife off the nearest table and throws it, hitting the teen square in his shooting shoulder.

Shepard-Vakarian coughs a bit and rebuilds her composure while trying to get a full analysis of the situation, but her brain is too fuzzy to completely get a hold of the situation. Bassius keeps grabbing whatever utensil he can weaponize and throwing them at the human, but only aiming for non-lethal spots.

"He put some sort of chemical in the water." Bassius explains quickly. "I couldn't read it, but label had a health hazard of three."

Victor approaches, only shooting at Bassius who is using his body to half shield Katherine. She tries to get back up, but barely has control over her limbs. She tries to do a biotic lift, but her implants are not listening to her. Instead they are burning inside her skin.

"Take my gun." She sputters out, but it sounds distorted from her limited ability to move her lips. He rips her gun out of her hand lines the shot up to continue to avoid Victor's head, but still hitting his hand. "Kill him." She forces out, still laying near her pile of vomit. It still sounds strange, but he gets the message.

He lines up a shot perfectly and manages to hit Victor in the head a couple times before Victor gets too close and he starts to hit the wall. Bassius listens carefully, shooting more slowly as he gets closer until eventually he nails one right between the eyes. This blasts Victor's face off revealing a metal structure underneath.

"Son of a bit—" Bassius swears before Victor lands a spatter of bullets around Bassius's face. Some end up in his neck, some in his mandibles, and a couple more nearly decimate his jaw. The damage renders Bassius unconscious, leaving Shepard-Vakarian alone, staring as the robot Victor throws her over his shoulder and sprints towards the ducts. She forces herself to stay conscious as he moves through the tight corridors, hitting her against a couple walls as he does.


	27. Fallout

Chapter 27

Garrus rushes up towards the restaurant about twenty minutes late, moving as fast as he can without appearing to be an emergency. He was not going to be so late again that she would already have ordered an appetizer that he cannot eat, and then be too full to enjoy a proper meal with him. At least, not for the fourth time in the past seven time that they have been eating there. It wasn't his fault this time though; T'Gegos could not get her material requisition through fast enough so they had to struggle to find Medi-gel. In the end they could not even find a full kit; they only found two doses.

He thought it was strange that even his credentials could not get him the supplies, but the Salarian warrant officer seemed sincere enough. According to him the machine was frozen, but the machine had never been frozen in the years that he worked at C Sec before. Granted, before the system was not also constantly processing requests for supplies for refugees. He simply wrote up the system error and moved on, but it made him late again for dinner.

He gets to Element 131 to find the entrance completely sealed off and a barrage of C Sec officers meandering around taking pictures of the destroyed dining area. Garrus pokes around to find Shepard, who likely is running the scene or chasing whoever was involved. He cannot see her; she must be chasing the suspect.

"What do we have here?" He asks the Lieutenant running the scene.

"A couple days ago a trainee was hired as a waiter here—a human by the name of Victor." The officer begins.

"Victor? I met him yesterday. He seemed like an okay kid. What about him?" He had been there for dinner yesterday with Solana. Victor had not said more that a handful of words the whole time and was simply shadowing Bassius to carry food and refill their drinks.

"Turns out he is some sort of android. He poisoned a couple of people and then attacked the Turian who noticed. He ran off with a hostage about twenty-five minutes ago. We called the owner to give us access to the video feed, so we can figure out who it is."

"Where Bassius?"

"Who?"

"The Turian waiter who was attacked." Garrus clarifies a bit too loudly.

"Oh, we are waiting for medical transport for him. Should be about twenty minutes." The lieutenant explains. The medical center is that far by foot.

"Bassius Actus may only be a tier two, but he is still someone who needs medical attention, and he is a friend of mine, so you will get them here faster." He orders.

The lieutenant pulls up a screen on his Omni-Tool. "They will be here in five minutes."

"Garrus?" Bassius gets up but is hunched over with blood streaming down his face with his mandibles in shreds.

"Spirits, what happened to you?" Garrus immediately moves over and moves the younger Turian to the nearest chair. "And of course, I don't have any Medi-Gel on me."

"I'll be fine. I had worse injuries, but that is not important." Garrus grabs a napkin and clears the blood off the waiter's face, but the wounds still ooze. Bassius swats his hand away and gives the last news that he was expecting; "he took Katherine."

Garrus's head snaps up and his eyes widen. "Are you sure?"

"She didn't want her whiskey, so she ordered wine instead but then ordered your brandy. She had me use her gun—they thought I stole it, so they confiscated it but it was some bulky custom hand pistol. She had on her markings and the same style black dress she has worn every night that you have been here. Yes, I am sure."

Garrus bolts to his feet. "Did you see where he took her?"

"No, I went out. I am so sorry. I couldn't see the poison until we went back in the kitchen. If I could see even a bit better then maybe I could have dealt with it before she was poisoned."

"Bassius, you did the best you could. Focus on getting better—I am sure Solana can do me a favor and keep an eye on you." He comforts as he is on the verge of hyperventilating himself.

"Yes Colonel." Bassius says as he holds another napkin to the gaping wound on his forehead.

Garrus takes a deep inhale and gets to his feet. "Lieutenant?" He uses his best authoritative voice to get his attention. Once the Lieutenant gets to his side he takes another deep inhale in speaks again. "It is confirmed. The hostage is Commander Katherine Shepard-Vakarian. Do you know anything about the poison that the suspect used?"

"It was labelled PDAT with a safety label indicating health hazard three and environmental hazard one. It is not in the system, but two others have complete paralysis. The third suffocated after paralysis reached his bronchial tube."

"What about the fourth—what about Shepard?"

"We know nothing." The lieutenant answers with only a hint of sympathy to his voice.

"I made her throw up. She barely drank any; she likely only has a small amount in her system. She will be okay Garrus." Bassius explains, but each word he says makes his wounds open a bit more.

"That should help. She should be fine." Garrus inhales again but struggles to get his breathing normal. He is a sniper, he should be able to control his breathing. The Lieutenant retrieves a paper bag and silently hands it to his superior. Garrus holds onto it, but does not use it, instead just closing his eyes to focus on anything else.

Garrus ends up staring vacantly at Bassius's injuries, who is watching him equally carefully despite being mostly blind. The injuries were so similar to his from last year, just a bit shallower as a series of shotgun pellets still do less damage than a rocket to the face. He was fine then; he had surgery and then he got back to the Normandy. That is it. This should be easier to collect himself from, but it is not. She should be okay. She always is okay, but she is somewhere, likely paralyzed, and he could have prevented it if only he were on time.

The lieutenant resumes processing the scene. One of his officers comes back with a fresh log of information for him. "We found a trail of coolant in the ducts leading towards the factory district—we think it is from the android."

"How? He was perfectly disguised as a human."

"We got a hold of the video feed from Bolan. The waiter did not exaggerate. The android was hit with knives and bullets until eventually the outer layer of synthetic skin ripped off." The officer shows the lieutenant the video. "Shall I request for a patrol to be sent to look for the hostage?"

"Yes. It is confirmed that the hostage is Commander Shepard-Vakarian. Obviously because of the profile of the case we don't want this getting to the media too quickly, but I will tell Colonel Vakarian where she is." The Lieutenant explains. He turns to find his superior, but the chair is now empty. "Mr. Actus, where did Colonel Vakarian go?"

"Dunno. Where is my medic?"


	28. Raid

Chapter 28

Lorius lines his sight up from their position to the target. He cannot get a fix on the ex-officer, but he can see Harkin within view every few seconds, but only for the briefest of seconds. This does not seem too strange to him, but the lack of cover between their current position and the target does bother him.

"It looks like an ambush," he reports as he climbs down from the perch. "I only see a small handful of targets and I can't figure out what Harkin is doing but he does not seem concerned."

"Not much cover either." T'Gegos adds. "I think Specialist Anoin can set up his sentry turret here and cover just about all possible targets."

"I agree." At their approval, Anoin hangs back and builds a turret, happy to be out of the line of fire.

Lorius and T'Gegos move forward, sticking to the little cover on the near side of the warehouse. They find only a small handful of FENRIS patrolling the stacks. They have a decent line of sight to Harkin's bunker, but not clear enough of a view to get a shot lined up. They get to the clearing just before the bunker and they still have only had to take down six FENRIS.

"Anoin, what is going on?" T'Gegos goes into the com-link. "There should be more than this."

"Heat sensors show three bodies. Two human, one unconscious, and the third is some sort of robot." Anoin explains. "Robot is heavily armed. Possibly similar to a Geth trooper but smaller."

"Shall I lure him out or will you take the honors?" Lorius asks T'Gegos.

"You should at least try." The Asari says after an eyeroll.

The Turian smirks and shoots the window. Harkin comes completely in view for just a moment before ducking back. Seconds later a robot shaped like a human, with half torn off synthetic face, steps out into the open. He immediately starts shooting an overpowered shotgun.

"Anoin, watch the side window. Harkin is going to make a run for it." Lorius orders as he switches to an assault rifle.

"Roger. Sending combat drone for support."

"You're the best Specialist." T'Gegos inputs as she sends a singularity orb towards the android. The android is not lifted off the ground by the attack, despite its usual effectivity. "Shit."

The android then warps towards T'Gegos, arriving inches away from her face, using the extra force to push her back into the wall. She falls to the ground and immediately takes a Medi-gel to get back into the battle.

"You good?" Lorius asks as he empties clip after clip on the one target whose shields are still up.

"Ten seconds."

"You have five." He says.

"Anoin overload the hell out of his shields." T'Gegos orders after giving Lorius an eyeroll.

"Whatever you need." The Salarian says from his safe distance away.

The android warps again, this time towards Lorius. Lorius manages to escape the brunt of the blow but is still knocked off balance by the shockwave. He shoots almost blindly but manages to lodge a few rounds in the android. Lyzia tries a focused force pull, but it barely does any damage due to his size. The only thing in their favor is the shield damage that Anoin is activating from nearly the opposite side of the room.

Lorius switches to his small stash of disruptor ammo. T'Gegos stands behind him as he empties the clip to prep her handgun; she may be rusty with it, but her biotics are useless against the android. As soon as she runs out of cover, Lorius throws a grenade to the position that he assumes that he is warping to next. It explodes and does enough damage to take out his shields.

Anoin switches to sending forward a sentry drone to simply predict where the android will warp to next. T'Gegos sends a shockwave his way; with the shields down the force fields may be able to do some damage. Slowly but surely, they register his attacks getting more desperate. The turret deactivates partially through.

The sentry drone darts to its next position, this time next to Anoin. As soon as Lorius notices, he sprints over to his position from his position twenty feet away. He doubts that he can there in time, but he does. He gets to Anoin's position just in time to push him out of the way and take the brunt of the force himself.

Lorius is pushed into the nearest crate with enough force to knock the wind out of him, but he still manages to empty his clip from his assault rifle and makes the android self-destruct. He takes the brunt of that too. Immediately after, he uses the Medi-Gel to get back onto his feet.

He exhales once and turns towards Anoin; "Are you okay Specialist?"

"Fine. Thank you." The Salarian says as he tosses a loose rag towards him. He takes it to wipe the debris off his face.

"It's what we do." He tries to grab another clip, but finds he has none left. "We're going to go make the arrest. Do you have any rounds?"

"Here." Anoin activates his heat sensor to check the bunker. "Harkin is in there with another human, but whoever it is they aren't moving. Not dead, but high fever and not moving despite all the noise."

"Okay." He waves T'Gegos over.

She comes over and he now speaks as quietly as he can. "He has a hostage. Anoin thinks whoever it is injured."

"Incapacitated. No sign of open wound. Minimal blood loss."

"Sorry. T'Gegos, how do you want to do the arrest?"

She looks over. Harkin has a gun, but despite his clear line of sight is not shooting. "I'll take the door. You take the window. If he tries to hurt the hostage, shoot him. I don't think he will fight much though—it seems like he wants to get caught."

"Okay. Anoin, can you get all you can on that thing?" He gestures at the remains of the android.

"You didn't even have to ask. But you should know that there are increased patrols in the area and someone is heading here—it seems like they are sprinting over." Anoin reveals.

"Then we have to get moving."

Lorius and T'Gegos take position. T'Gegos opens the door as soon as she is sure that Lorius is in position. "Freeze—put your hands on your head!" She orders Harkin.

He obeys with a smirk, even going down to his knees. T'Gegos approaches with her weapon still drawn and lists off his rights as she locks down the cuffs. She then looks around for the hostage to find a red head with blue paint tossed onto a heap against the back wall.

She scans the hostage and almost immediately recognizes it as Commander Shepard-Vakarian. She then notices blood high on her thighs. The commander is still conscious, but only stares at the Asari, unable to react. She just stares with a desperate, pleading look in her eyes.

"Ephentos…." T'Gegos slips out.

The Turian stares in confusion at the use of his first name at work. "What is it Lyzia?"

"The hostage is Commander Shepard-Vakarian."

His eyes widen. Harkin starts laughing, but still does not fight the arrest.

"The Colonel is our incoming. He will be in sight in less than thirty seconds." Anoin alert them through the coms.

Lorius jumps in through the window, kneeling down beside the commander. She does not move, but he swears he can hear a sob choking up from her. He does not see a single injury, but her clothes are disheveled. "It'll be okay—I'm just going to fix your skirt." She does not respond, but he moves so that he can get her more covered up without actually touching her.

"Knock him out." Lorius orders. T'Gegos hits him in the head with the butt of her weapon while Lorius discreetly shoots the overhead sprinkler head, forcing water to flood into the small bunker. "Weapons away."

Almost immediately after their weapons are holstered, the Colonel rushes in completely flustered. His paint gets smeared in the heavy flow of water. Hers is already completely gone, only remaining as puddle of blue around her.

"Is she alright?" Garrus asks with a shake to his voice.

"No apparent injuries. She appears to be paralyzed—I don't see any spinal injury though."

Garrus pauses enough to collect himself. "She was poisoned with a new neurotoxin known as PDAT. Lieutenant T'Gegos and Lieutenant Lorius—you take Harkin. Have Anoin call the Normandy to get Doctor Chakwas and you three all go back go headquarters for complete debriefing."

T'Gegos tries to update him on her additional trauma, but instead Lorius nudges her and speaks; "yes sir, just worry about her."


	29. Outlook

Chapter 29

Lorius sits at his desk first thing the next morning, arriving nearly an hour before he was scheduled. He looks over to find T'Gegos blankly staring ahead into space in her own desk. He watches her from his opposing corner, but she does not move. She barely even blinks. "You're here early," he speaks as casually as he usually does. "I thought Anoin had the overnight shift."

They managed to keep custody of Harkin, even though Major General Faust tried to get a 'more experienced' team on the case. The crew was new, but all of them had done their share of interrogations. Their best guess was that the major general thought that Garrus was too close to the case and thought he'd try to handle the booking himself and effectively nullify the process by doing so.

T'Gegos does not respond, even when he comes over, leaning against the shelf on her desk. Last time he did this, he knocked over her active stack of files and was permanently banned from her half of the room. "T'Gegos?"

She still sits frozen.

"Lyzia?" he tries, even though she despises when anyone uses her first name.

She snaps out of it, sliding her hands up her forehead as if to relieve tension. "What is it Lorius?"

"You should get some rest. You can't go on patrols with no sleep."

"We are posted by the Krogan Memorial. There have been no arrests or even writeups there in weeks; I'll be just fine." She states.

Lorius studies her more closely for a moment; she had been sitting there without moving since after the arrest last night. "I take it she is still paralyzed then?"

"It went up to her lungs; she's not breathing on her own. I figured that the poison is a variant of tetrodotoxin but without the actual sample I can't know more."

"Anoin can handle it when he gets in; he is our science specialist."

"I needed him to cover the interrogation." T'Gegos admits.

Lorius kneels to get closer to her eye level. "Listen Lyzia, there was nothing that you could have done. We had no idea that he had a hostage, or whatever that android was. The poison was administered at a different location and we did everything by the book. There was nothing more we could have done." He consoles with mentioning that he actually saw Harkin in the act, but rape was so rare on the Citadel that most officers have never had to process a case in their careers. If he had known what was happening he would have forgone the mission and lined up for a clean kill.

"I know, but with the strongest woman in the galaxy to be taken down so easily, how can we handle what we are up against? We still don't know exactly what is being planned and whatever is happening, but they clearly have far more resources than we do."

"That's it? The First Contact war was ended by a team no bigger than ours to make it so we have the peace we have now and they were against thousands. As soon as we know what we are up against, we will make a plan. Until then, there is no point panicking."

"But how can we get more resources when we don't know who we can trust?"

"You're half Krogan; screw trust and make your own rules."

She involuntarily smirks. "Is that what got you down so many tiers?"

"Only because it didn't work, but Colonel Vakarian moved me back to tier ten shortly after we were hired so it's like it never happened." Except that any drop in tier for Turians was a black mark on not only them, but to the person who originally promoted them.

Anoin returns to the office with a fresh new data-pad. Lorius jumps back to his feet as soon as he hears the door slide open. "What do you have for us Anoin?" Lorius greets efficiently.

"Not much. Harkin confessed to arranging to having Commander Shepard-Vakarian drugged, but I get the feeling that he did it against his orders. He was tipped off by us looking at the video feed; somebody tagged his video feed so that anytime some one looked at it an alarm went off. His resources bac from when he was Fade are why he was released, but he was shot in the head before I could get much more out of him."

"He was shot?" T'Gegos asks incredulously.

"While in the interrogation room. So much paperwork." He heads to his desk in the corner and starts to play the interview for them.

"Turn it off. I'll listen to it later." The interview started with Harkin cackling; never a good sign.

"So, he definitely was involved, but he was no longer needed, or whoever is organizing the thing thinks he can finish whatever they needed out of him on their own." Lorius hypothesizes.

"Human trafficking." Anoin concludes.

"How? Everyone in and out of the Citadel is screened and tracked." T'Gegos adds as she snaps back to her normal self.

"Do you really think that with all of the refugees getting sent back to their planets that someone won't just fall through the cracks? On top of that, C Sec employees can go to the docks whenever they want so long as they have the clearance. They could literally just tell someone that they need additional screening, and then take them where ever they want." Lorius cuts in.

"Great. We can't do much there without getting assigned to the docks ourselves, unless we can find an untraceable way into the feed." The Asari starts brainstorming in her personal notebook. Lorius would be the easiest to get back on the docks, but unless he has an in it would still raise some suspicion. Anoin could find an untraceable hack, but it would be illegal and there is still the possibility that someone could still mark the feed the same way that Harkin has his marked.

"We'll think of something." Anoin states, with no real intention of reassuring anyone, but with his track record it still manages to have that effect.


	30. Okay

Chapter 30

The artificial light on the Presidium has barely turned onto its day setting near the hospital. Shepard was placed in the same room as last time, just over six weeks ago. Garrus once again is sitting by her side, sitting once again with his tablet. He stayed by her side for the past thirty-six hours, only even taking out his tablet after Doctor Chakwas removed the intubation tube. Shepard is conscious, but she can only move her eyes, but as soon as she was able to breathe on her own again they knew she was in the clear. She just stares off into space though, fixated on a point on the ceiling.

Garrus has his hand resting on hers, as he always does when he wakes up before her. She tries to move it away, but she still lacks the ability. She knows he does not know what happened. Chakwas figured it out, but she knew better to say anything. Katherine was not yet sure if she was grateful for this or not; now she had to decide how to tell him or if she even should.

She eventually manages to spread her fingers from their relaxed position. As soon as Garrus notices, he reaches over to hug her with a sigh of relief.

"You had me scared there for a while." He says with a smile. "How are you feeling?"

"Foggy and heavy-I've been worse." She is not sure if she is telling the truth or not. She was definitely injured worse before, but none of her previous injuries were so personal before. It was always just part of the job.

"They still aren't sure what the poison was, but it metabolized fast enough that Doctor Chakwas just let it run its course. Bassius was able to find an extra dose. I'm sure Anoin is testing it now." Garrus explains as he finally exhales. "You had a couple of bruises and your rib broke again, but Medi-Gel was able to fix those. You'll be sore, but nothing with lasting damage."

He does not know. There is no way that he can know. She feels broken and he has no idea. Katherine makes the split decision to keep it that way. "That's good to hear. Is Bassius alight?" She says as she tries to move her legs. It takes her a moment, but she feels full control again. Her thighs are sore too though; that she could have done without.

"He is completely fine. I recommended him for a position on my squad. As much as we don't need another weapon specialist, getting him into C Sec will allow him to get the surgery he needs to get his eyes fixed and Anoin will appreciate less combat-he's a lot like Liara and Mordin like that."

"Do you know where he got his combat training? I thought that he was unable to join the Turian military." Shepard-Vakarian says as she cautiously steps onto the cold tile. Doctor Chakwas hid her old clothes on her, instead leaving her a set of Alliance standard apparel. Garrus darkens the glass walls to let her change somewhat in private.

"Apparently his family is full of known pirates—his cousin was the pirate who stole Wrex's family armor—and they blinded him when he defected by throwing acid at his face. They groomed him for the family trade and he just walked away."

"I knew there was something I liked about him." Shepard-Vakarian comments as she slides the comfortable shirt on, embracing the familiarity. "Did your squad file the report yet?"

"Yes and no. They submitted one, but it was crap." He opens the file on his tablet. "Quote: Entered warehouse at fifteen hundred hours. Encountered moderate amount of inorganic hostiles. At nineteen hundred hours, arrested Harkin and rescued hostage. Interrogation began at two hundred hours the following day. Concluded with abrupt murder of Harkin'. It's like Anoin wrote it and then Lorius deleted most of it. I can't even find the interrogation transcript and my request for Harkin's murder to be investigated was ignored."

"As much as it is crap, they likely have a reason. I would trust them on this." Shepard-Vakarian coaches, resuming her old role as Garrus's mentor, even if it is only because this vague report omits her role in any of it.

Garrus ponders this for a moment before speaking. "Alright, but I need to ask them to unofficially give me the real report. I know you would do the same thing if you were not in complete control of a case."

As much as she usually would typically agree with his course of action, this time she is dreading him taking her advice.

Garrus watches her again as she carefully stretches out her stiffened limbs. She even tries a biotic push and manages to move a metal table across the room. She is physically back. When her back is turned, he sneaks up behind her and wraps his arms around her waist, resting his chin on the top of her head. The usually comforting gesture makes her freeze up. "I am glad you are okay—I don't know what I would have done if you didn't make it."

"I told you—I survived worse." She says with no expression in her voice, no matter how comforting she wants to be. She fights the urge to pull away but manages to stay put despite the chills the run up her spine with each panicked memory that jumps back into her head. A thought jumps into her head, a thought that will simplify things. "Listen honey, I was going to tell you over dinner, but a number of refugees did not make it back to their home-worlds. I need to go look into it before the situation escalates."

"Can't someone else in the Alliance handle it? You are on leave."

"Hackett has no one to spare so it is better if I just handle it. It should not take more than a week or two." The lie is almost too easy. Yes there are refugees who are missing, but he is right, Alenko or one of the other previous members of the Normandy could easily handle it, but she just needs time. She needs to buy time. She can be fine if she just buys some time.

Garrus turns her around. "Alright, if you need to go, go. I'll hold down the fort while you are gone, so to speak. Go save some refugees."

She smiles; he gets it. She will be okay. Everything will be okay.


	31. Full office

Chapter 31

Private Bassius Actus sits at the desk by the doorway in a fresh C Sec uniform that still has its original creases in it. He did not want to get lost getting back into the building so after his tour of the building the night before, so he just sat down and stared at the only desk that did not have anything on it. He was surprised; Colonel Vakarian simply told him that he needed this pirate raised, nearly blind waiter on his crew and the next day he was in orientation. He can only see the smallest pinpoint in clarity; everything else is just shapes. They gave him a custom tablet for now, one which reads the words for him, but they also told him that after his thirty day probationary period, they would schedule the surgery to fix his eyes. Once he recovered from that, he would be switched into the officer branch as a second lieutenant and be officially moved into tier ten. He had already been offered a new apartment that was suitable for a tier five, but he had to decline as he did not want to have to worry about the layout of a new apartment before he gets his eyes fixed.

The door slides open. The top of the blob is purple—this must be the Asari, the highest ranked in the group, First Lieutenant Lyzia T'Gegos—and she stops completely in front of his desk.

He snaps up to a salute, as he assumed he was supposed to.

"Relax Bassius, we don't do that here. Colonel Vakarian would prefer that we end up on a first name basis, but it is taking a while to get adjusted. We compromised and went with last names. Besides, I am pretty sure that Vakarian is going to have Lorius promoted before we even finish our current project."

"Alright T'Gegos…Garrus wanted me to get the active files from you. He said he wanted to see if I could give a fresh view."

"Yes. I assume he wanted you to have the Harkin file as well?" She asks.

"He mentioned it by name and number."

She sighs. "Figures—he has emailed us twice already about it. It is irrelevant to the primary case, so I will give it to you later. I will handle the Colonel on this. Just focus on getting up to speed on the primary case." She downloads the files from her tablet and slides the memory disc into his tablet.

A red blob enters next—this must be Second Lieutenant Ephentos Lorius. "Morning Lyzia." He looks at the new desk and pauses before he can get to his desk. "Who's this?"

"Check your email. He's the new recruit—Private Bassius Actus."

"The waiter?" He looks at him more carefully. "Yeah, you served us twice last week. You're from the pirate clan?"

"Not really. I defected."

"Explains the screwed-up paint." He mumbles. "Last I checked the Actus clan had sharper lines."

"He's blind, Lorius." T'Gegos adds.

"Ah. That explains the tablet. Hide by Anoin's desk with that thing. We don't want anyone to overhear the files." Lorius adds. "I picked up an extra shift of patrols today."

"Colonel did too. Apparently, Shepard-Vakarian took the Normandy on an extended expedition."

Lorius sighs; "that just makes our lives harder. Do you think we can have Anoin put a filter on his tablet to prevent anything from being leaked to him?"

"Totally unethical, but if we need to we can."

Lastly a green blob walks in and takes the last desk—this must be Specialist Tolas Anoin. He just sits and starts working on his computer.

"Anoin, what did you find?" Lorius asks, knowing full and well that whenever the Salarian buckled down to his computer that he was processing some new evidence.

"Shepard-Vakarian is looking into missing refugees. It was listed as the Normandy's reason for departure. Trying to figure out how she knows who is missing, so I am hacking into the human embassy terminal."

"You are what now?" Lorius stammers. "Not her personal tablet?"

"Knowing her workaholic tendencies, they are linked. Embassy terminal has less security. Just need to make sure that Commander Bailey does not find out—too much of a wild card."

The Turian and the Asari exchange glances, but neither of them makes any effort to stop him.

"Well alright then. Just don't piss off either Vakarian. The new guy by your desk is—"

"Private Bassius Actus. Blind, waiting for surgery, ex-waiter at Element 131, related to the pirate clan. Letting him catch up on case."

"Okay. I'm going to get out of here before the colonel has a chance to chew me out." Lorius says. Almost immediately after he finishes talking T'Gegos nudges him to alert him to the armored Turian standing not too far behind them.

"So, you are ready to explain to me where the rest of my report is?" Garrus asks while tapping his fingers on his arm.

"With the utmost respect sir, no, I do not have your report. Neither does anyone else in this room, upon my request."

"And why not?" He asks, barely hiding seething rage, but his voice is still level.

"It would compromise the mission."

"How would giving your superior a report of a mission that he signed off on compromise the overall mission?" He continues.

"That is confidential." Lorius responds, standing with the attention expected of a Turian soldier.

Garrus stares him down, but he does not budge. "T'Gegos, do you concur?"

"Completely sir."

"And Anoin?"

"Will send the composition of poison once done processing, but that is all that you need sir."

Garrus sighs. "Fine. I heard about Harkin—did we get anything out of him that we did not already know?"

"Yes, appears someone is assembling an army." Anoin summarizes.

"They are hiding them somewhere on the Citadel, that's for sure." Actus inputs. "Have you been looking for them yet? With an operation this organized they probably are moving them around to different locations on a regular basis."

"We have just been peeking around during patrols." T'Gegos responds.

"Wouldn't be there. Would be places not on the map—like places you can only access from the ducts." He explains. "They run around all of the Citadel but very few are actually recorded. Bolan had us enter the restaurant from them. Mara knew them really well."

"Yes but she is not a reliable source." Garrus adds, not adding that Mara, the Batarian hostess, absolutely despises him and his wife. "But that is a lead that we have not had. How long will you need to get up to speed?"

"Unless there is a way to increase the speed on the reader, three days." Actus reports.

"Okay. After that, you four will rotate to map and search the ducts instead of patrols. Even if someone wants to keep us out, they would reveal themselves because it has been on the C Sec priority list for decades. If anyone asks why, it is because of your shoddy reports. For now, I'll trust you all on the Harkin thing, but I'm not happy about it." Garrus decides, giving the best possible outcome for all of them. "Lorius, you need to check your damn email."

"Will do."

Bassius smirks; this is not the dynamic he was expecting, but it certainly beat working as a waiter.

End Act 1


	32. Reunion

Chapter 32

Shepard-Vakarian arrived at Tuchanka, finding that after all her time working on the planet that she would never adjust to the heat. She keeps her armor on, with her heaviest weapons mounted on her back. She immediately heads towards the pile of debris that constitutes the throne area. Wrex is meeting with a few of the other clan leaders, but drops everything when he sees the tiny female approach.

"Well if it isn't the fiercest puny human in the galaxy!" He greets enthusiastically with his arms spread open. "How ya doing Shepard—sorry Shepard-Vakarian?"

They shake hands, but she has to brace her arm to prevent from being completely moved. "Better than you look."

He laughs at the joke. "Thanks for coming—we haven't needed to fight three thresher maws at once before and your squad is always the best equipped for big jobs."

"I like the challenge. When do we head out?"

"Soon. We are waiting on one more group and they just requested clearance to land. You can have the Asari and the Prothean buckle down in the truck. Six-hour drive, but we need to open that camp back up with the upcoming expansion." By upcoming expansion, he means that eighty-five percent of female Krogan are expecting, not that Krogan have typical family structure.

"One more group?" She asked skeptically.

"Just landed. You know them well." He points her attention to the entrance where three Turians, an Asari, and a Salarian walk in.

She recognizes the front group as Garrus's underlings, who are all looking around with various levels of amazement. She knows that behind them her husband is the third Turian, but she immediately panics that he is there. She has been gone for over five months with nothing more than vague emails sent to him on an almost daily basis. She knows she will have questions to answer, especially with all of the rumors circulating that she could only thank the spirits, if she had any right as a human to thank, that he had not yet asked about them.

"Bassius! It's good to see you in armor!" She greets the ex-waiter first, for no other reason than she had never actually introduced herself to the rest of his squad even though she knows that they all know who she is.

"You as well Katherine!" He says. "They fixed my eyes! Has anyone told you that you are gorgeous?"

"Hey, that's my wife." Garrus jokes back with a smirk.

"Sorry Garrus, but I saw her daily the whole time you two were on the Citadel and I never knew."

"He is just a teenager after all Colonel." Lorius says equally amused.

"Please you would have said the same thing, but you would have said something along the lines of 'Spirits Colonel, your wife is not only a badass but also a knockout'." T'Gegos adds.

"You are not wrong."

"You four head to the trucks. Find Onarr Brack—you will be fighting with him and Javik. Kill the thresher maw and don't get killed to get this listed as a successful training trip. Anoin, you are on turret patrol."

"You got it boss." Lorius gives a mocking salute as T'Gegos rolls her eyes and pulls him towards the truck. Bassius trails behind as he looks around, but Anoin stays just beside him to nudge him forward.

Garrus approaches the throne area instead of following them over. "So, we are in for a fun few days, now aren't we?"

The Krogan laughs, "you are the only Turian I know who calls thresher maw hunting fun."

"But almost all of your men do."

"Yes, but they are Krogan." He says as he shakes his hand as well. "You are in the ammo truck with Grunt—he insisted on fighting with his battle-master. But he's driving. I figured you lovebirds would want some time to yourselves."

"Much appreciated. Are we ready to go?"

"Yes. We have two teams of ten for the other two, but you three get the third to yourselves."

"Excellent." Shepard-Vakarian says with no real excitement in her voice. She turns off towards the truck without waiting for him. She hops in the back and sits against the crates of ammo, sitting back and closing her eyes.

Garrus sits opposite her. Even with her eyes closed she can feel him staring.

"What is it Garrus?" she asks with none of her softness; just an emotionless question.

"After one hundred and sixty-five days and you don't even address me?" He asks, more hurt than mad. She does open her eyes to focus on him. "Are we okay?"

"Garrus I love you more than anyone in the galaxy. The only reason I was able to come back after being grounded was because I knew I would be able to find you again. That has not changed."

"Then why did you disappear? You said it was just going to be a couple of weeks." He asks. "You just kept sending me a bunch of excuses about why you needed to stay out longer."

"You're right. That wasn't fair to you." She says, with the softness returning to her voice. "I'm sorry. I just needed space."

He sighs. "Does this have to do with the attack?"

"It is completely about the attack. It has nothing to do with you; well it does but nothing that you did. I just don't know what to say after everything that happened."

"What exactly happened? You have been attacked before, but you never let it get to you before."

She freezes. "You still don't know?"

"I know nothing. My squad still hasn't given me the report. I only came here when I heard a rumor that you were sick with the Hanar flu and wanted to make sure you weren't dying."

Despite her mood, she manages a slight laugh. "Hanar flu?"

"I don't know anything about Hanar. It sounded deadly."

"I don't have the Hanar flu, and I'm not dying. We do have a lot to talk about, but can it wait until we are back on the Normandy?"

"I can live with that."

"Great, so how is your investigation going?"


	33. Thresher Maws

Chapter 33

About half of the buildings in the camp are crushed and crumbled, but with limited area on the planet in habitable temperatures, the Krogan need to reuse the area. The three teams scattered around based on where the thresher maws were last seen. Shepard-Vakarian, Garrus, and Grunt were sent to the north side as alpha team. Garrus's underlings, along with Liara and Javik are on beta team to the west with Onarr Brack and three other Krogan. Gamma team was east of members of clan Urdnot. Anoin was left in the center of the town at basecamp with eight oversized turrets under his control, but he sent his drone over to beta team to watch his squad mates fight the largest beast that they ever would face.

Even though Onarr Brack was assigned to lead beta team, Javik was barking orders instead. He had Liara and T'Gegos wait in front with him so their biotics could do some real damage. Lorius and Onarr Brack were each given an M-920 Cain to knock down its armor as fast as possible, even though they are only good for one shot each. Bassius was in charge of sending out grenades, which one of the biotics would ensure would hit the beast.

Garrus had his sniper rifle ready while Grunt had his own M-920 Cain. Shepard stayed on the ground with her rarely used grenade launcher ready to use her own biotics to do damage.

"Activity to the west; beta team hold the line." Anoin crackles into everyone's earpieces.

"'Hold the line'? Could you be anymore of a Salarian?" Lorius snarks as he loads and cocks his gun.

"That coming from the worst Turian that I know—and we have the pirate clan reject over there." Anoin retorts back.

The thresher maw pops up; before he releases his first wave of acid spit, Lorius lands a clean shot with the M-920 and Javik marks it with dark channel. The beast retreats underground with nearly half of its health drained.

"Not bad Actus, you might be able to hold your own around here." Onarr compliments.

"If he can avoid getting in a fistfight—Bassius and I have to rip him out of bar fights on a regular basis, and Krogans punch way harder than drunk humans." Lyzia adds.

"Except the time I punched out Grunt." Shepard adds into the conversation.

"Yes, but you are Shepard—you're barely human." Garrus adds.

"Is that supposed to be a compliment?"

"You're more legend than human Commander."

The thresher maw comes back. All three biotics launch their warp attacks to the beast and Onarr shoots his M-920. The thresher maw spits acid, but only grazes a couple of the Krogan. Bassius tosses out a grenade which Liara tosses the rest of the way toward the maw, but he retreats before he can get the full brunt of the blast.

"Alpha team, incoming."

"Finally," Garrus smirks.

Before he can ready his weapon, the maw pops up. Shepard-Vakarian lights it up with her grenade launcher. Grunt aims the M-920 but only manages to graze it. He spits acid at them, making a puddle where Shepard-Vakarian was standing mere seconds before. She uses warp on the beast and then immediately sends multiple shockwaves its direction. It may not be the most effective attack in the sand, but it does do some damage before it retreats.

"Is it just me or are these things weaker than before?" Grunt asks.

"We just have more experience after the Reapers." Liara adds, sobering the mood.

"These animals are a less of a nuisance than the Reapers—maybe we could try riding them once again." Javik comments causing a round of guffaws from most of the Krogans.

The maw by beta team hops up again. Bassius launches neural shock, which manages to stun the beast. It wildly spits acid to destroy a building but does not have enough energy to retreat.

"Spirits, when did you learn to do that?" Lorius asks as he empties the clip of his assault rifle and the biotics let their warp attacks finish draining the beast's energy. It drops dead but is still off in the distance.

"Anoin loaded the ability to my omni-tool. Haven't had a chance to try it yet, but having another person emptying clips seemed redundant." Bassius reports.

"Yes, but neural shock should not have been able to stop a thresher maw." T'Gegos adds.

"Adjusted program. Should have started smaller." Anoin adds.

To the north, the other maw emerges again. Garrus shoots his rifle straight into the beast's mouth, preventing it from being able to shoot acid for a while. Grunt empties his assault rifle and Shepard-Vakarian tosses her grenade launcher to Garrus. He drops his rifle and starts launching the grenades immediately. Shepard-Vakarian uses her lift ability to send the grenades into it.

"Third thresher maw is converging on alpha team. Gamma team, head to their position."

"We're coming too." Javik adds. The Krogan in the group were already halfway to the corpse to celebrate the victory, but the rest immediately converge on their position.

"From which direction?" Shepard-Vakarian asks for clarification.

"From the south." To the south is a collection of clay brick buildings. She immediately notes that anywhere he pops up will cause heavy debris to fly everywhere and she really does not want to end up in the hospital again.

Garrus launches the last grenade in his set. Since they only had a three-man squad, they did not grab more ammo. Grunt finishes the first thresher maw off with a couple shots from his assault rifle. Shepard-Vakarian retreats to the edge of the clearing and Garrus switches back to his assault rifle.

The thresher maw pops up through the buildings, tossing debris but not hitting anyone. Shepard-Vakarian immediately charges towards it, letting the shockwave concentrate on it. As soon as the charge subsides, she punches the ground next to the beast to release her most concentrated shockwave. She runs off as soon as she can, letting Grunt and Garrus empty clips into it. The thresher maw spits at Shepard-Vakarian, but before it can land on her she charges again and this time she tries punching the thresher maw directly. Luckily it manages to send the shockwave directly into the beast, doing far more damage than the usual attack.

Beta team arrives just in time to see her punch the maw. They, along with Garrus and Grunt, empty their clips to take out the beast in record time.

"I think that's a first." Onarr Brack says.

"I think it should be a tradition." Grunt adds.


	34. Report

Chapter 34

Night soon fell on the base camp, where most of the expedition was celebrating their success. On top of the fact that all three thresher maws were defeated with no casualties, they were able to retrieve several tons of meat from the one in the ruins of the town. The camp was just three large tents; two for sleeping quarters and one more for food, and, more importantly, alcohol. All of the guests who are not Krogans were in the left tent. Shepard-Vakarian, as the only person who cannot eat dextro based food, wandered off early on.

She had brought some food tablets; they taste like crap, but they have plenty of calories and she can fit them in her ammo pockets. She found the highest point in the town and climbed as high up as she could on it. From where she is, she can see into most alleys between the remaining structures. She gets a glimpse of the Salarian watching his squad-mates drink Krogan whiskey. He, as usual, does not drink.

Shepard-Vakarian pulls out her tablet and starts a new document;

 _Time to pay up Tolas._

Anoin pulls out his tablet after hearing the notification sound. He had linked his tablet to hers months ago after she discovered that he hacked into her embassy terminal. Instead she directed him to her resources in exchange for handling what information involving her that Garrus could see. It was not ethical, but she could not think of a better alternative.

He puts the tablet back into his pocket and casually excuses himself from the table, which is no problem at all as his other teammates are busy drinking; Lyzia inadvertently flirting with Lorius, and Bassius talking to Onarr Brack. Anoin, in his typically aloof fashion, was able to find Garrus before he wandered off into the town, no doubt trying to find his wife.

The Salarian hits a button by his horn to activate his earpiece that is linked directly to hers as he approaches his superior. "Colonel, I need to borrow you."

"Can it wait? I am trying to track down Katherine." He says, only showing slight signs that he had been sharing a bottle with Grunt just moments before.

"No actually." The Salarian moves to block his boss's path as he tries to head out. "She asked me to give you this." He pulls out the data pad with the case number for the one case he did not have access to.

"The Harkin case?" He immediately sobers up and takes it. "Why now?"

"She asked. I owed her a favor."

Garrus immediately opens the file and starts reading the introduction.

Anoin places his hand over the data pad, blocking his view completely. "Not here. Go somewhere more secluded. Don't listen to interrogation if you don't have to."

"I am your commanding officer—are you really telling me what I can and cannot read in one of the reports with my name on it?"

"No, I am simply warning you that things were said that you do not want to hear."

"All the more reason to hear them Specialist, and I will read the file wherever I want."

"Going to have to insist." He tries a new approach; "for security reasons."

The Turian sighs. "Fine then. I'll be back. If Shepard comes by…"

"I'll send her your way."

"Good man." He heads off.

From her perch, Shepard-Vakarian tracks him. She pulls out a scope from a rifle she never would use and focuses in on him. She looks over for a moment to see Anoin throw away his earpiece into a pile of debris and then retreats to the barracks. She ignores him; his squad-mates are too inebriated to pay any mind to his disappearance.

She activates an old channel that he set up that played the feed from his visor. He linked it to her omni-tool in case there was something in the Reaper war preparations that she needed to see immediately. He never used it, but she still had the connection set up.

He sat down on what was once a front doorstep, giving her a decent view of his profile as well. He starts in his usual relaxed fashion, the same way he relaxes when he waits for her to wake up every morning. He starts with the scene at the restaurant, but that does not say much. He skims through to where Bassius fell unconscious from the blood loss and the android ran into the ducts to the warehouse district.

The report did not say anything about how the android carried her like a sack of potatoes, hitting her frozen body against the metal walls, slamming her each time he made a tight turn. It also did not say how when they arrived at the bunker, Harkin told him to bend her over the table and the android tossed her down, knocking the wind out of her but she was unable to do anything. She could not even scream.

"Well, well, well; it seems that I finally have my hands on the illustrious Commander Shepard." He taunted. She mumbled something like a protest; but was not able to be understood in any capacity. "My god I had been waiting for this since you first told me off two years ago." He moved her hair away from her face and inhaled her scent while fighting with her skirt.

He gets to the part where Lorius admitted to seeing him in the act and not knowing until after. She saw him notice her and she knew they were fighting their way towards her, but there was nothing that they could do to stop him now. She was just there, unable to do anything but to close her eyes and pretend to be somewhere else.

This was the first time the report said what happened to her. Garrus pulled his eyes away from the data-pad, staring off to anywhere else. He was beginning to understand, but she almost wished that he did not have to. She cannot keep this away from him anymore though, not if she ever wants to get home. He controls his breathing as carefully as he can, using one of his tricks from his extensive training to calm down but it does not help much. She debates going down to him, but he resumes reading, getting to the part where T'Gegos found her and realized what happened.

He then clicks the attachment with the recording. It begins with Harkin laughing, just cackling like a mad man as soon as the Salarian sat across from him. "It is a shame she is being wasted on a piece of…" he turns off the recording then and throws the data pad against the stone wall opposite him.

She closes her eyes again, clenching them tightly closed as he cradles his head in his hands. She stays back, unable to think of anything, anything at all, to stop the horrible sounds of him hyperventilating in her ears.

Soon enough, his underlings start asking around about where he went. She no longer has ears on the scene, but she can tell that Lorius was trying to chew Anoin out. The Salarian was unflappable; he gave the report and as soon as he tells them that she told him to do it, they are sobered and slouch down into their seats. Lorius soon tells them to retreat to the barracks and removes the filters from Garrus's tablet before following his squad back to the cots that were set up for them.

Shepard-Vakarian exhales and slowly climbs down, finding herself out of breath when she finally does not have to focus on her balance. She slouches against the wall, just trying to turn her brain off for just a moment.


	35. Return

Chapter 35

Shepard-Vakarian stands at her desk in her cabin, with the hologram of Admiral Hackett standing halfway through her desk. She had not yet taken off her armor, having stayed in it for the majority of the six months that she had been away. At this point, it is comforting to feel the metal scratching against her neck and squeezing her frequently broken ribs.

"Commander Shepard-Vakarian; how did the thresher maw hunting go?" Hackett asks politely. It was a favor for the Krogans after she arranged for a new representative to join the council. The ship may be back in Alliance control, but she still had approval to take the ship to handle council matters.

"Fine sir. No casualties and no injuries. We picked up a few members of C Sec and will be bringing them back to the Citadel." She reports.

"I take it you did not call me to tell me about a successful council mission." He stands casually, always willing to handle requests from his Specter.

"No. I am requesting a year of medical leave. After I get back to the Citadel, I will hand the ship to Edi to get the Normandy back to Earth for reassignment." She states simply, standing at the most formal attention possible.

"On what grounds?" He asks skeptically.

"Bloodwork should be posted on my file any second now if it is not already." She still cannot bring herself to say it. She knows she will have to, but for now, she cannot find the words.

She watches as he pulls it up on his tablet. It takes him only a glance to notice it: "I see. Would you like to be back on payroll until you get back?"  
"No. Thank you for understanding. I request your discretion."

The elevator dings to signify that it will arrive to her cabin. Regardless of who it is, she does not want to handle them.

"As always. Hackett out." The hologram disappears as the elevator opens.

"Katherine Jane Shepard-Vakarian—get out of that armor right now." Doctor Chakwas yells as soon as she catches sight of her. "If you just casually tell me to run a blood test and expect me not to follow up, you are absolutely insane. Armor off."

Shepard obeys. She heads towards her armor locker before flicking the button that opened the panels to her suit. She takes off her gauntlets. She steps out of the boots and lets both halves of the legs drops to the ground. She opens the torso more to the largest setting to get it over her head. Almost immediately her stomach relaxes without it being pressed against her.

"You have been hiding this the whole time? I would have thought that you would have more common sense than that." Chakwas grumbles while changing the password on her armor locker. She directs Shepard to go sit on her sofa before she does a quick scan. "Your blood pressure is still on the low side, but you are running a fever."

"It was forty-two degrees on Tuchanka the whole time we were there. I'm sure everyone who disembarked is running a little high." Shepard-Vakarian tries to reason but has no emotion and no fight in her voice.

"I am having a specialist wait for you when we get back on the Citadel. Don't even think about putting armor on and for the love of god, talk to Garrus. You can't leave him in the dark."

The elevator dings again. She will not even have a change to evade him or think of a real plan.

"I am taking blood samples for more extensive testing." She reads the blankness on the Commander's face as she does not fight her in any capacity; she says nothing, just staring ahead. The doctor softens; "It will be fine, just relax for the sake of everyone involved."

The elevator opens. Doctor Chakwas slides by him with the vial of blood in her pocket. She says nothing as the Turian walks past, even though he politely greets her.

He heads down the stairs to her living area, neither of them saying a word to the other. He does not even take a good look at her. He just sits down beside her until one of them can find the words they are looking for. She does lean against him after a moment, resting her head against the cold rim of his armor.

He carefully controls his breathing before he speaks first. "I know what happened." His words are slow and deliberate, but barely sounds like him. She does not say anything, so he continues. "And I think I know why you did not tell me, even though I wish you would have let me help you through it."

"I'm sorry. I had fought my way through that the first few weeks, but there was a…complication." She picks the last word carefully.

He runs through his head trying to think of everything that it could be and immediately a string of rumors that he only found this morning. He thought there was not enough buzz about Shepard while she was away, but he never expected this much, nor that any of the rumors would possibly have merit. "What kind of complication?" he asks, fighting the picture forming in his head.

She does not say anything, but instead she just grabs his hand and puts it onto her swollen stomach. He has not noticed in her armor, but what was usually toned was a bump. She keeps it there just for a moment before he feels a strong force against it. His hand darts away from it immediately. He freezes but then puts his hand back, confirming his immediate assumption. She still says nothing, sitting with her eyes downcast.

"You're…"

"Yes." She still cannot say it.

He takes a moment to think, but then says the first words he can think of to calm her down. "Wow…our child."

"Garrus, Turians and humans can't…" she speaks delicately, nearly to tears.

He cuts her off. "Doesn't matter. You're my wife. It's our child." He says, trying to believe the words with every fiber of his being. He knows that there is no chance that the child could be his; humans and Turians are not biologically compatible. They knew this from the start. He wanted a family. He assumed it would have happened through adoption, but if is how it is going to be, he will adjust. Besides, even he knows that if she wanted to, she would have dealt with it months ago.

She softens up, using a smile to hide incoming tears. "Yea, our child."

He inhales and gets up to his feet. "Okay, here's what we are going to do."

She raises an eyebrow but lets him continue.

"I am going to put this armor away and find you something to eat while you go shower. Spirits, when was the last time you took off your armor?"

Despite herself she snorts out a laugh. "Can you at least find me a change of clothes that might fit?"

"Whatever you need."

With that, she gets onto her feet with some difficulty. As soon as he sees that she is on her feet he turns around to use the armor locker, getting in with his recently added credentials.

He has taken off his plated boots and gauntlets when he hears a thud near the door. He releases the torso as he looks up to find Shepard convulsing on the ground. "Edi, get Chakwas here now!"


	36. Restoration

Chapter 36

Shepard-Vakarian wakes up in the hospital again, but for once she is not in the same trauma room. Garrus is sitting by her side, cradling her hand in both of his. She tries to sit up, but the hospital laid her up so that her head was lower than the rest of her body in her sports bra and under armor pants. A Salarian doctor sits beside her with some sort of wand on her stomach, which she assumes is part of an ultrasound. She should have thought better; if she had any medical care beforehand, she could have prevented herself from ending up back in the hospital once again. There is an IV in her arm with the label 'Prussian Blue' on it. Last time she had Prussian Blue in her system, it was due radioactive isotope exposure. She runs through the past few months, but the only contact with any radioactive isotopes were when she was working with Turians, but she had not had a reaction to that before.

"What happened?" she asks groggily.

"You had a seizure and then we couldn't wake you for five hours. Chakwas found you a specialist—Doctor Jonova Firon—who is checking up on you now." He explains simply.

"Why am I receiving Prussian blue?" She asks slowly.

"Testing theory. Seems correct. Waiting on bloodwork to confirm." The Salarian explains without really looking up from his monitor.

"And why am I upside down?"

"In case incorrect—prevents early labor." He explains with equal distance.

"And the baby?" Garrus brings up. Shepard-Vakarian hates herself for the fact that she did not think to ask first. He may have been able to adjust to it quickly, but she still was not entirely sure why she did not deal with it earlier, mostly just because she kept putting off the decision, which ended up making the decision for her. She had been ignoring it, only going so far as to cut out alcohol from her diet.

"Not seeing any problems." He moves the wand to the other side of her abdomen and makes a noise that could only mean that one of his theories were correct, but he does not let either of them in on what it is.

Garrus tries to take her mind off the riddle that the Salarian was setting up for them by changing the subject. "I tried to track down Maria for you, but I don't have her number. I called Solana instead, who apparently does have Maria's info. They are coming by in a bit to drop you off a change of clothes."

"Alright." She says emotionlessly, but she does squeeze his hand.

The monitor dings moments later. Doctor Firon looks at the monitor closely again and makes his satisfied chirp again. He then holds the button on the side of her bed to move her into a far more comfortable nearly seated position. He then has Garrus hold the wand in position as he prepares to give his report.

"Theory was in fact correct. Children are fine; slightly on the small side, to be expected, for twenty-six weeks but developmentally adequate." The doctor begins to explain.

"Twenty-six weeks? It should be twenty-four weeks." Shepard-Vakarian points out immediately. She was attacked twenty-four weeks ago; she was not going to forget that any time soon. It took her only three weeks to realize that she was pregnant, but she did not confirm it until yesterday even though she was already certain. Her logic, quite simply, was that if she did not know, she did not have to tell anyone.

"Hormone levels indicate later."

"Children? Did I hear you right?" Garrus asks, managing to appear at least a bit excited. That point went right past her. She was able to push through the idea of raising one child from the event, but two, or god forbid three, would make it nearly impossible. Garrus may have been willing to pretend that it was their baby, but to her, this was Harkin's child—rather his children. The prospect nearly makes her shut down completely.

"Fraternal twins." Doctor Firon turns the monitor towards them and hits a button to activate the wand. "First is the girl, healthy human at two pounds and six ounces."

She refuses to look up at the monitor. She tries to turn completely away, but that gives her a clear look at Garrus, who is utterly transfixed, watching the screen so completely that he does not even notice her. She instead turns back to the Doctor. "So, what was your theory with the Prussian blue?" she asks as nonchalantly as possible.

"Symptoms believed to be nausea, fatigue, weakness, loss of appetite, headaches, and the seizure—many of these were written off as pregnancy or stress. Low white blood count and improved condition with Prussian blue indicates that you have radiation poisoning."

"Again? How?" She asks, ignoring the fact that her husband had not moved an inch.

"Thulium poisoning."

"But I thought I had built up a tolerance to thulium?" Back when she first started working with Garrus, she had some mild symptoms which Chakwas had given her some iodine tablets to help with. After a month or two she no longer needed them to remain healthy.

"You did, but only to lower exposures. Plus, continuous exposure is higher than typical exposure and has infiltrated blood stream." He explains.

Garrus returns back to life, darting into the conversation while still keeping an eye on the monitor. "As in an internal source?"

"Yes."

He laughs and then kisses the hand that he is still holding. She does not get it.

Doctor Firon takes the wand out of Garrus's hand and takes it back to the other side. "The boy, healthy Turian boy, two pounds two ounces."

She finally looks up at the monitor, skeptical of the news. Sure enough, the screen shows a sharp face, complete with mandibles and the start of a fringe. The boy's eyes appear to be a bit less recessed than typical, but the plating on his face and the three fingered hand next to his face verify that this child is undoubtedly Turian.

"Oh my god; he's a Turian." She says incredulously. "He's a Turian…" she repeats quietly and starts tearing up with relief, finally turning towards her increasingly excited husband.

"Without a doubt." Garrus bends down and kisses her forehead. "Our children."

A new panic begins to settle in on her. "Are they okay? You said they were on the small side… I didn't take any vitamins or anything. I was wearing armor for the entirety of the past five months. I ate mostly food pills for most of the missions. I didn't sleep half the time." She rants, trying to think of every possible mistake she could have made.

"Perfectly healthy. Small only because they need dextro-nutrients, which would not have been obvious to most. Chakwas noticed but had no way to give you the nutrients. Prescribing conversion tablets to take with every dextro-meal, which should be at least two of your daily meals, as well as iodine tablets until you adjust to new exposure levels." Doctor Firon explains emotionlessly.

"Are you sure?" she asks again.

"As sure as I can be. No records of half Turians that I know of. Mismatch in gestation periods for the two species, but not concerned as at this point both are viable. Just stay close."

"Okay…I didn't see the girl." She says, regretting having said anything when she notices how completely transfixed he is onto the screen.

"Will make printouts." He moves it back over to the other side. The human girl has her hand against her face, in the same position as her brother. She has a soft face, with delicate features typical of infants. Her mouth is held in a pout, almost as if she was blowing a kiss. It takes Shepard-Vakarian just a second to be completely entranced as well.


	37. Barracks

Chapter 37

The ducts are barely lit, but with the little light from T'Gegos's omni-tool they managed alright. Today they were somewhere above Chora's den, where the ducts have more hallways to them and more doorways. It was as if there was once a city here years, possibly centuries, ago. As usual, Lorius, Bassius, and T'Gegos are on patrol while Anoin stays back to provide technical support. They started searching the area a couple days before they left for Tuchanka but have yet to find anything other than a Keeper on patrol and a bunch of ruins, including what appeared to be an oversized marketplace. Today they were working on what appeared to be the old residential district.

"So, you are saying he was in a great mood this morning?" Lorius asks Anon to clarify the news.

"He was humming when he unlocked his door this morning with picture frames under his arm. So yes, great mood."

"I didn't know Turians could even hum." T'Gegos comments.

"Well then I'm happy for them." Bassius adds. "To be that happy the kid must undoubtedly be his. It really is the best outcome anyone could have dreamt of."

"And we were so focused on hiding it from him." T'Gegos says distantly.

"Was following orders."

"I know Tolas, but it still felt wrong, especially when they could have been happy months ago."

"You did the right thing Tolas-don't let her make you doubt it." Lorius affirms. "Anything ahead?"

"Still no heat signatures." He reports.

"Okay. Next door then. Bassius, would you do the honors?"

"So you don't get hit by any more traps? Sure, I can do the honors." Bassius jokes as he approaches the door. There were not many traps, but the residential sector did have a few dwellings with spring traps in the entrance which did little damage but were annoying.

He unholsters his gun anyways. He carefully activates the manual locks for the door, opening it slowly. As soon as it gets half way, a laser turret starts shooting at them. Bassius slides the door closed again, stopping exactly when the turret stops shooting. This gives him enough room to slide his arm in and blindly shoot at the turret, until he hears his gun make good contact on the heavy plastic casing of the turret. He opens the door back up with his gun at the ready.

This room was set up as a barrack, with as many bunks possible shoved into the small space, each stack separated by mere inches. Behind the bunks, the dwelling was clearly home to a small family, complete with a small kitchen corner that had not been used in several years, but the slight ripples in the fabric of the bunks indicated that they were used in the past week.

"I think we found something." Bassius tests the phrase out, hoping that he is correct.

"There has to be at least two-hundred bunks in here." T'Gegos estimates. "What's our missing person count? About three-twenty?"

"Three hundred and sixteen. Ninety-four humans, eighty-two Turians, eighty-one Asari, forty Salarians, sixteen Batarian, and three Quarians. Possible that not all of them are involved though."

"So, does this mean that they only have two-hundred of the missing people or that this is an older hideout?" Bassius thinks aloud.

"This place has been used within the past week—the bunks would have reverted to their un-stressed position if it were any longer. But why leave the bunks behind? They have been careful to hide their tracks so far."

"Either they had to leave in a hurry because they knew we were coming, or they simply are coming back soon." T'Gegos thinks.

"I concur."

"Either way I think we blew the lead. If they know we are tailing them they are going to cover their tracks or take drastic measures. If they are coming back, they will know that we are following them because we took out their turret and they will then take drastic measures." Bassius explains.

"Anoin, can you walk Bassius through fixing the turret?" Lorius requests.

"Roger."

"Then get to it. T'Gegos, I need you to install cameras. I'll get counting." He starts examining the dwelling. By his count, there are two-hundred and fifty-one bunks, all seeming to have been used around the same time. There are no footlockers for personal items, and only one crate full of food pills. Near the kitchen they have broken a water pipe and fashioned their own access to it. The only other exit that they see is on the wall opposite the door they entered, but it is also guarded with a turret, which thankfully is inactive. The wall opposite the kitchen area has a small indent in the wall, which appears to be some sort of garbage shoot that had been recently opened.

Lorius opens the panel to be greeted by the smell of death he was hoping never to smell again. Instead of going down into some deep pit, there is only a shallow shoot into another room. He ties a rope onto the foot of one the bunks and pulls on it as hard as he can to test the sturdiness, before heading down the shoot himself.

Inside are bodies; dozens of them. He sighs. "I have bodies. Lots of them."

"Species?"

"A spread."

"You need to catalog them. Blood samples and picture identification."

"I know." Extracting them would be impossible; they would have to come back later and hope that they have not liquified, although the limited oxygen would likely allow them to be mummified instead.

"How many?"

He counts carefully, gently unstacking the bodies. "Fifty-five; thirty humans, ten Turians, nine Asari, five Salarians, and one Batarian. If all the bunks here full, that likely means that we were right about all of the missing refugees being involved. Fifteen hundred weapons, right?"

"Sixteen hundred four hundred and fifty-four. No more missing in the past four months."

He activates the feature in his omni-tool specifically for dead body identifications. He just needs a needle prick of each one to get enough for a DNA test, but they will not be able to run the samples until they shut down the operation. Each sample is accompanied by a picture of the person it came from. With the blue tinge to the human corpses, he manages to determine that they died from suffocation. "I think they were given the same poison that Shepard-Vakarian was. Can you test it without putting it in the system?"

"Not sure of test yet. Can only estimate decay time and cannot determine how long they have been dead without seeing them in person."

He sighs again and climbs up his rope as soon as he has gotten samples from each body, heading up the shoot with no difficulty. "Bassius, is the turret back online?"

"Yes, and Tolas set up a remote access to it so we can control both turrets in the future."

"I set up four cameras as well—we can access the live feed whenever."

"Alright, let's call it a day. We aren't prepared yet for a full assault of this size. We need to give the report Garrus as soon as possible."

"Let's go," Bassius does not question it.

T'Gegos watches him more carefully; he knows their patrols are not supposed to end for another three hours. He usually is on top of protocol, especially so since Garrus corrected his tier in the hierarchy. She says nothing, following as they head back out of the ducts from their access in the back of the wards.


	38. Council Meeting

Chapter 38

Shepard-Vakarian stands in the clearing in her office, with the holograms of Sparatus, Valern, and Tevos standing around her for their standing meeting, which she was happily hijacking after months of standing back from the meetings. She always attended, missing only two of the daily meetings in the past six months, which was less than the others had missed. She was always present, but she did not always have something to input. Now she was back in full swing. "We need to have more species represented in the Council, even if it is not on daily meetings." She declares, crossing her arms over her baby bump in one of the long dresses that Maria and Solana had picked out for her. "I have said it once, I will say it again; all species who helped with the Reaper war should be represented if you want their assistance again in the future."

"We have been the same for centuries; there is no reason that we need to change now." Tevos immediately comments.

"Adding human representative to Council only happened because humans were becoming a large portion of the military presence." Valern agrees with her as he always does.

"But she has a point—humans are currently the dominating economic contributor after Asari having the role for so long. We need to be prepared for any post-war shifts. Politically it is the smartest move." Sparatus agrees with her as he had been since she first started preparing for the Reapers.

"Do you think it is possible for the Krogan to out pace the Asari in economic growth?" Valern tries to bring up.

"Yes; right now they have a large amount of resources, are heading into a population boom, and they have a good leader who has a secure role in the society." Sparatus adds. "The Geth are now the most readily available for construction and redevelopment of damaged colonies. And the Volus have been supporting Turian economy for centuries."

"On top of that, the Quarians now are able to access their planets in the terminus systems, with their crops and new resources. They are going to need Council help to restore their settlements. And the Batarians, even though their systems have taken the brunt of the damage, they are the best are rebuilding from the ashes. The Hanar make excellent mediators and now only worship the Prothean. The last species I would like nominated is the Elcor, if for no other reason than that they can be trusted explicitly for managing the communication networks in the galaxy." Shepard-Vakarian explains, hoping that rephrasing her argument will make them listen. "Everyone will benefit from more representation. Us four can meet daily, while the full Council meets on a weekly basis."

"If all of them are welcome, then what stops us from adding the Rachni or the Vorcha to the Council?" Tevos tries to poke holes into the argument.

"We tell them that once they develop a clear government system and an interacting economy we will consider adding their representatives to the table. If we happen to find other species, we tell them that once they integrate their economy into the rest of the galaxy and prove that they have a stable government structure, they will be considered for representation." Shepard explains. "We can no longer have a species defined by one act either; we need to see them as a whole."

"Then why are we including the Geth? They have an extensive history attacking Council species, as do the Batarians." Valern adds.

"Batarians aren't trusting because we have not represented them despite their activity, resulting their decent into piracy. The Geth have only attacked because they were under control by someone else or because they were being used as slaves. Representing them will likely decrease attacks." Sparatus explains. "Recall that not too long ago humans and Turians were at war. Since adding humans to the Council, we have had no negative interactions as a whole."

"It has only been three years!" Tevos adds. "Three years is not a long enough history."

"But we can't build on the history without trying." Shepard-Vakarian adds tersely.

The Asari sighs; "Even if we wanted to, it would take forever to find representatives, if finding Udina's replacement has shown you anything."

Shepard-Vakarian sends them each copies of her dossiers of each of the representatives that she picked. "Both the Admiralty board and the Conclave have nominated Han'Gerrel vas Neema for the Quarians. I fought alongside him once—he follows orders well but can also improvise. Urdnot Wrex nominated Urdnot Lurek; as much as I do have personal ties with Wrex, I have never worked with Lurek. He is currently on the committee to settle disputes between clans, but Wrex thinks that he can be moved off for the role. I have been working with Barat, who is currently one of the highest ranking Batarians in their military and has been especially cooperative with helping me coordinating my work with them in the past couple months. Sparatus recommended Mirad Val for the Volus after working with him extensively in the past to ensure the best interests of both species with their economic deal. I ask that you two pick the representatives for the Elcor and the Hanar as you work with them far more than I."

"And how are you doing in the search for the human Council member?" Tevos asks.

"You are looking at her. I am more than qualified for the position, as my contributions the past few years have shown. I have found more space for refugees of all species on human colonies than any of you, have maximized resources from the colonies, and have been able to make the tough calls about abandoning two of our colonies when I determined that we do not have the ability to maintain them."

Tevos and Valern exchange glances. "Then humans will forfeit their primary Specter," Valern clarifies.

"I can handle both sets of responsibilities, as well as what the Alliance wants of me, as I have been doing for the past year. Although I will admit that I will be content to stay out of combat for a few months."

"In that case, you have given us a lot to go over. We will give you our decision this time next week." Tevos says as she and Valern disconnect from the meeting.

"Excellent work Vakarian." Sparatus congratulates before disconnecting.

Shepard-Vakarian takes this opportunity to slouch down on one of the armchairs in the room. She exhales, relaxing from being on her feet for so long, but immediately recomposes herself. "What can I help you with Lieutenant Lorius?" She calls him over without actually looking at him.

"Lorius is fine actually." He heads over in his casual clothes and sits in the armchair across from her. "I need a favor."

"Having to do with C Sec or Garrus? Either way, I'm in."

He involuntarily smirks. "You are aware of the purpose behind our current mission?"

"I am, but I am not up to date. Last I heard you were investigating just over three-hundred missing refugees and were mapping the ducts to find them." She explains openly, causing a look of concern to pop onto Lorius's face. "Relax—I have disconnected the audio and placed a piece of paper on all cameras. When someone asks me about it, I say it is for confidentiality as security is covered by the cameras in the hall and Commander Bailey. I check them daily to make sure they are still disconnected."

"Okay, well yesterday I found fifty-five corpses and because of our security issue, I cannot run the samples without compromising our mission, but I can't just let them go unidentified. Is there any way that you can run them for me and just keep the files processed for when we are done?"

"No problem. I can run them, and I will keep them completely offline."

"That's it? No why are you asking me, or why do I care?" He asks, completely incredulous.

"I have lost men too Lorius. I know what it feels like and I know that you would want to make sure the families have the proper closure. You have no reason to explain to me."

"Thank you Shepard-Vakarian."

"You can pick one. I don't care which."

"I can't pick—I don't even call your husband 'Vakarian'."

She laughs heartily at that.

"So thank you, and congratulations." He ejects the cartridge with the samples and leaves them on side table before he leaves.


	39. Siblings

Chapter 39

Garrus wanders over to Dock twenty-six and over to Cargo Hold B where he is pleased to see most of the Turians are back home, leaving only a handful displaced. C Sec had declared that all refugees unable to return in the next week would be placed in homes on the Citadel. This also meant that Solana would be going home with them at that time, but, for now, it made her easy to find.

Solana was busy with her three consistently critical patients, as the only medic on duty. She was there in her military uniform alternating between them in hopes that she can get them stabilized in time. As he approaches, she is busy checking output on the Turian with crush injuries who was recovering from multiple surgeries.

"Sol." He greets simply.

She looks over her shoulder for just a second. "Hey Gar." She says coldly before immediately resuming her attention to his chart.

Garrus tries to run through his mind to think of what he could have done to piss his sister off, but his consistent obliviousness with women included his sister. "What did I do this time?" he says with more of a laugh than with annoyance.

"When were you going to tell me the news about Katherine?"

"Well, now." He says, with his old awkwardness apparent.

"How could you wait nearly seven months to tell me? I mean you didn't tell me when you were still alive after you quit C Sec. You didn't tell me that you were cleaning up Omega. You didn't keep me in the loop about the Reaper attacks, and you barely even told me about Shepard in the first place! What kind of brother…" Solana turns away from her patients to yell at her brother.

"Hey! That's not fair. Telling you about the Saren mission would have compromised the whole mission if father decided to take his side. I didn't tell you about Omega so no one would go after you when they figured out that it was me. I did try to tell you about the Reapers, but father didn't want to panic you. And you're right, I could have told you that I was having a relationship with Shepard long ago, but we only talked three times that whole year and we had more important things to discuss. And lastly, I couldn't have told you about the twins until now because I only found out a couple of days ago myself, and I have been trying to get a hold of you since then." He retorts.

"Spirits, really? How did she go so long without telling you? If she were a Turian, she would have had the kids already." She immediately becomes sympathetic, making Garrus once again grateful for how easily her emotions could be swayed.

"Take a break for fifteen minutes and I will tell you."

She sighs, briefly checks on her third patient, and then leads him over to the more secluded crate where she had been taking her meals. It was close enough that she could hear the beeping to the machines, but far enough away that the patients could not hear her conversations. As soon as she sits down, she speaks; "Now spill."

"She didn't tell me because she wasn't sure it was mine."

"She cheated on you?" She shouts, loud enough for anyone nearby to hear her.

"No, no, no!" He says equally loud, hoping that would solve any problem that a reporter could hear. After she settled back down he continued. "She was assaulted by a human and her first, admittedly logical, assumption when she figured out that she was with child was that he was the father as she was so sure that Turians and humans could not breed. She was on the run to try to figure out how to tell me or hope it would resolve itself before she told anyone—her medical officer found out seconds before I did."

"But obviously they are half Turian?"

He smirks and shows her the pictures, emphasizing the ones of his little boy. "Without a doubt."

She peeks at them for just a second, before pulling out her own copies. "I may have taken a copy of her file. I am close friends with one of Doctor Firon's nurses and they knew we were related…so…"

"Wow, patient confidentiality be damned."

She rolls her eyes. "You would have stolen mine. Anyways, what is fascinating is that he did figure out how it happened; so Turian and human DNA are similar enough, but the strands are wound in opposite directions. In the bonding ceremony he theorized that the DNA unwound enough that your DNA could interact with hers; he thinks the bonding ceremony is more biological than cultural, which also would explain why we have almost no illegitimate children."

"And of course there is almost no way to prove his theory."

"But it can't be disproven either. He is likely going to publish something on it soon." She clears her throat and changes the subject. "But that's not important now—what is important what I have found on half-Turians."

"There were others?"

"Eight."

"And?"

"In each case, the mother died shortly after birth due to antigen mis-match between the species. Two of them were Turian mothers, and the rest were human mothers. Same thing either way."

He freezes up at the news. "And-and the kids?"

"There were five Turian type half-Turians and one human type. All five Turian-types are fine; they are being raised on Palavan and just are all red instead of the more common silvery that we know. The human-type was given a blood transfusion from a human and died as it was cross matched as if she were a human instead of it being from a Turian. Since we know this now, your little girl should be fine." She explains, using her best doctor voice.

He exhales with his eyes closed. "Humans have a shot that they can be given to prevent antibody reactions."

"Doctor Firon has been trying to make one, but we cannot be sure that it works until after we use it. It is a guessing game."

He exhales again. "Do me a favor and just don't tell Katherine. She doesn't need to worry about this."

"Fine, but are you going to be okay? You look like I shot you varren."

"I'll be fine." He mostly lies. "Just tell me about how Palavan restoration is going."


	40. Escape

Chapter 40

Anoin stares at the security feed as he had been for sixty-three of the past sixty-five hours. Until now, the feed had been stationary, with him occasionally moving the camera to make sure that his cameras were still functional. It was not thrilling work, but it was slightly preferential to once again watching the evidence locker. The door opposite the one that the squad entered slides open. Two guards enter first, taking post on either side of the door. He started recording as soon as he registered the movement. Behind the two guards, a trail of people follows in ragged clothes.

Anoin jumps out of his daze to grab the nearest notebook, where he starts to track what species each person is until he can run a face recognition program on the video. Every twenty victims are trailed by another guard, which notably are wearing outdated C Sec uniforms. The victims stand shoulder-to-shoulder at the foot of the bunks, filling in the far side of the room first. The guards stand against the wall once their group has gotten in position.

After two-hundred forty-six victims in the regular line, pairs of the missing people carry in corpses and drop them into the shoot before getting into their spots. The line is ended by two more guards, one of which shoots the nearest Asari in the head before dropping it in the shoot. The other tailing guard collapses down two of the triple stacked bunks and throws it out the door, just off to the side.

Anoin's count ends with sixty- four humans, seventy Turians, seventy-one Asari, thirty-three Salarians, fourteen Batarian, and three Quarians, with a total of two-hundred fifty-five victims in total, but with the bodies that Lorius found, it still definitely accounts for all the missing people.

One at a time, the guards heads over to the box on the one counter and grabs enough food pills and water for their group, and hands it to the person closest to their post who then distributes it to the others in the group. The victims then stand with the food in their hand until all the others have their food. They stand for an extra twenty minutes after, just holding their meals in their hands, until finally the guard at the head of the room gives the simple command, "eat".

Everyone ravenously eats their meal, even though the single pill would not be enough to satisfy their hunger; since this was the first barrack they found in the past six months, it is likely the only one. This means that they likely have not eaten in about five days. With each food pill containing about a thousand calories each, all of them are bound to be malnourished and yet most of the victims still seem well muscled.

None of the captives have any armor or Omni-tool, with the notable exception of the three Quarians who are required to stay in their suits for their survival. Anoin watches as the three Quarians all dump their water over their shoulders. This goes unnoticed by the guards as they start to collect the used cups from everyone, not even noticing when they step in the puddles. The used cups are sent down the same shoots as the bodies and the guards return to their positions.

"Sleep." The head guard gives another simple command. The captives all immediately climb into their bunks, including the three Quarians. One is on a top bunk, while the other two are in middle bunks. Minutes later, the guards walk around with some sort of pin and start stabbing the captives in their legs. None of them even twitch at the pressure, including the Quarians.

As soon as they finish their testing, the guards each sit at the foot of the bunks of their group. Seconds later, they slump down completely, folding nearly completely in half in a pose that could not be comfortable.

Another couple of minutes later, the Quarians all sit up and activate their Omni-tools, causing a shock to envelope each of the guards. They then hop down from their bunks. One of the male Quarians immediately heads to the door that the squad had used the other day and plugs a cable from his Omni-tool to the door's access panel.

"Lia, why did you call the signal today? I could have used more time to study the trap on the turret. Who knows how long until someone sends new androids to replace those."

"Uto can't last another five days without water. I know we said we were going to get everyone out, but we can't let him die while we try to think of a plan." The female Quarian says.

"I could have been fine, but now they know that we know about the poison." Uto pipes up.

"You have been running a fever for days, your reflexes are poor, and your heart rate has been dangerously high." Lia lists off. "We may be having symptoms, but yours are dangerous. You need water."

"Well I can't exactly drink the poisoned stuff."

"The doses they have been giving everyone have only been causing immobilization; you could have been fine."

"They all have immune systems. Another dose of that stuff could have easily killed us." Uto argues.

Anoin continues to listen as he activates his own com-link. "Hostages in barracks. Quarians escaping. One critical. Needs extraction."

"Lyzia and I are on patrol—we can't exactly slip out right now." Lorius speaks in a hushed voice, just having stepped away for a moment.

"I'm close but unarmed." Bassius informs.

"Stay there; Shepard and I are about ten minutes out. Just slip into the ducts and stay out of combat. I have a sidearm you can take." Garrus adds to the line.

The Quarians get the door open, and immediately head down the hallway, but their best guess has them heading out the opposite direction from where their rescuers are coming in. They simply move ahead blindly picking turns as the Salarian does his best to track them with the limited cameras that the others spent so much time installing.


	41. Rescue

Chapter 41

Bassius uses his Omni-tool to verify Garrus and Shepard-Vakarian's location and then moves up his hallway to meet them where his side trail meets their main path. He leaves his light off, standing nearly completely in the dark while he waits. "How far out are they?" he asks Anoin through the com-link, being acutely aware that he is currently unarmed.

"Three minutes."

"How are the Quarians?" He asks for an update.

"They are trapped in dead end right now, but I do not see any additional signs of distress." They still are on camera, so Anoin is able to send him their position, only about five minutes away from Bassius's position. He flips back to the other camera to the currently still feed of the barracks. "Guards are likely androids. Unsure if destroyed or just offline."

"Fully sentient or following orders?"

"Also unknown."

"Searching for active frequencies? If they are following orders they have to be getting them somehow." Bassius speculates.

"Obviously—glad to see you reading."

Bassius smirks; it was one of the many things he recently found out he liked doing. "Can I convert my neural shock for AIs?"

"No, but I am sending you the over-load program. You are going to have to show me how you overcharged your neural shock though."

"I deleted a failsafe line in the code. It limited the current output for user safety, but I weighed the risks." He says simply.

"Careful."

"Will do." He says simply. The email arrives with the new program. Bassius opens the file immediately to find the same line of data in this code as well. Without a second thought, he deletes the limiting code.

"Incoming." Anoin informs, but Garrus and Shepard-Vakarian have already found him. Shepard-Vakarian tosses her pistol to him, keeping her side-arm for herself.

"Are you okay for combat?" Bassius asks automatically upon seeing Shepard-Vakarian.

"This is not a combat mission." She says in a way that indicates that he should drop the line of questioning. As much as she agreed that she should stay out of the line of fire, she knew every Quarian currently on the Citadel, and had been tracking the missing trio since she got word from the Flotilla that they never returned after their pilgrimages. She was fully aware that Garrus was of the same mindset as Bassius but was choosing to ignore them for now.

"Let's move." Garrus says, taking charge of the operation. "Anoin give us directions."

"Roger." They immediately start heading down the long corridor. "Take the next hall on the right." He says simply.

"But the Barracks are straight ahead." Garrus questions.

"Bad feeling. Go around." The nearest hall is darker than the others, with not nearly as many emergency lights. They follow the hall until it turns left again, when Anoin chirps back into their ears. "Confirmed. Androids back online, closing in on their position."

"How are they tracking them?" Shepard-Vakarian asks.

"Quarians weren't careful with their trail; left debris trail straight to them."

"Extraction can go as planned then." Garrus notes. "How far out are they?"

"Thirty seconds." Anoin says with no emotion to his voice, a tone that he had mastered long ago. He need not mention that they are further out then they are. The trio breaks into a sprint anyways.

They can see the edge of the hallway when the androids open fire. Garrus immediately puts an arm out to stop Shepard-Vakarian from following her immediate instinct to rush ahead. Instead, she just closes her eyes and tries to ignore the screams echoing down the hall.

As abruptly as the shots begin, they stop. The androids then run back to the barracks, without checking down the adjacent hallway.

"All clear." Anoin reports.

"We were too late…" Bassius comments, with the disbelief flooded into his voice.

Shepard-Vakarian ducks under Garrus's arm, heading down the hallway quietly. She holsters her gun, as she approaches, letting the men trail behind her.

The three Quarians are slumped in a pile against the back wall. Shepard-Vakarian recognizes them immediately; Kael in dark blue, then Uto and Lia in forest green. Lia was off to the side, but her brother was reaching out for her. Kael had a hand on Uto's shoulder, trying to console the youngest Quarian in their final moments. Both siblings had their face masks broken, revealing their extremely human faces. Shepard-Vakarian immediately runs the life signs protocol on her omni-tool.

Initially, there are no signs of life on any of them, but seconds after she begins her scan a heart beat registers on Lia. Shepard-Vakarian immediately applies some Medi-Gel to the Quarian. Almost immediately after it is applied, the Quarian opens her eyes and hyperventilates.

"It'll be alright…just breathe. In, and out." Shepard-Vakarian soothes. "In, and out." She coaches the Quarian for a couple of minutes until she finally relaxes a bit.

"Is my brother…"

"He did not make it." She says gently.

"And Kael?"

Shepard-Vakarian just shakes her head.

Lia just sighs and slowly sits up. She peaks over at her brother, to see his broken mask, and his face for the first time since they were given their exosuits. She reaches over to take off his mask to get a better look. She then takes off her own and rests her forehead against his and lets herself cry over her brother.

The rescue squad just watches, none of them being familiar with the loss from watching a family member die. Eventually, Garrus helps Shepard-Vakarian back onto her feet. "Bassius, can you think of a rouse to have some duct-rats head over here soon? I don't think they should be left out here." Shepard-Vakarian says simply.

"I'll think of something. What about her?"

"We'll take her back to the apartment for now—I have some Quarian armor from back when Tali'Zorah vas Neema was on her pilgrimage. We can maybe add her onto the manifesto of the next ship from the terminus systems and say that I am helping her as a favor for Tali." Shepard-Vakarian brainstorms.

"Can that even happen? Pilgrimages are supposed to be independent." Garrus counter points.

"I know but I cannot in good conscious keep her locked up. I want to be able to send her back to the flotilla."

Lia got back onto her feet when they were not paying attention. She turns and takes off her hood, revealing long black hair that had been hiding in the flowing hood. "I am not going back—not until justice has been found for Uto and Kael." She declares, getting the full attention of everyone around her. "I don't need the suit—disguise me as a human for all I care—we need to stop them."

Shepard-Vakarian considers this quickly. "Fine. Cover your ears—I'll find some concealer and give you a long dress to hide the legs and hands. Let's get you out of here."


	42. Survival

Chapter 42

Lia sits anxiously across the table from the revered Commander, uneasy with her examining gaze. Shepard brought her to her apartment and let her sleep for the past day and a half, but still she was not at ease, especially without her mask. Lia told herself that she could disguise herself as a human long enough for her brother to be avenged, but she did not expect the world outside of her suit to be so strange.

The young Turian stands back, leaning against the wall with obvious boredom. Garrus had insisted on leaving Shepard with a body-guard, in case she was some sort of double agent. Based on the tea that Shepard—no, Shepard-Vakarian—poured for her, she did not actually think she was a threat. Lia chooses to ignore the questions she needs to answer, to instead ask about the mysterious guard.

"Who's that?" she asks, holding the mug to her face, unused to the warm ceramic against her lips.

"Second Lieutenant Bassius Actus; he saved my life the first time that we found out about the poison. You can trust him completely." Shepard-Vakarian explains simply.

It did not take any time at all for Lia to see how Shepard-Vakarian managed to command the respect of so many so easily; it is just in the way she carries herself, with how she focuses her attention completely on whoever she is talking to and with more respect than they deserve.

"He saved your life?" she continues to divert away from herself.

"As soon as he realized that I was poisoned, he forced some of it out of my system and then diverted my attacker, resulting in the scars you see now. I owe him my life." She says somberly.

"Knowing what little I know about you, I know that is something you take seriously." She still studies the Turian; he may be around Uto's age, but he looks a bit more hardened. He has old scars around his eyes, with newer burns from heat clips down the side of his face and neck. They are all superficial, but they are definitely permanent marks. Uto had a scar on his face too, just a cut on his eyebrow from when he fell out of his bunk when they were kids. He cried loud enough that the whole crew quarters popped over to check on him.

Lia sighs and finally starts. "Did you know that it is usually illegal for Quarians to have more than one child?"

Shepard-Vakarian focuses entirely on her, sitting with her arms resting on top of each other on the table. "No, I did not know that."

"We needed to keep a zero growth population in order to ensure that our resources were properly allocated, but too many people were dying so our parents were offered incentives to have another. That makes me one of the rare Quarians to actually be able to know what it is like to have a sibling," she continues, her tone becoming more somber. "And what it is like to lose one."

Shepard-Vakarian says nothing, simply letting Lia compose herself.

"We were met here on the Citadel to celebrate that I was about to finish my pilgrimage and he was starting his. We had said our goodbyes by the docks when I was returning to the flotilla. I was the last person on the ship because I stayed behind to make sure he had everything he needed. I didn't even think anything of it when a C Sec officer called me over after the security check point. He simply had me follow him for additional screening before dumping me into a crate with some water and food pills. They left me in there for days, and then they had some of the older captives open the crate to let me out. That was only about two weeks after you help sort out the mess with the Volus."

"That was almost two years ago now. Others were there longer?"

"I don't know how much longer. I don't think they did either. The crates were in the medical facility, where they were active test subjects. They then tied me to a table and performed tests on me for months in the same room as at least twenty others. We were not allowed to talk to each other, only able to watch when others had the same test performed. You sat around dreading when it was your turn, and then after you were in pain and were only able to empathize as the next person tried not to scream. If you screamed, they knocked you out with a blow to the back of the head."

Lia tries to register some emotion on the Commander's face but is met only with her trained blank expression as she registers her statement.

"After a while, I don't know how long, they moved me to the barracks for a day of sleep, but was unable to move when I woke up. When I was finally able to move again, they had us go deeper into the ducts to improve our skills. We ran obstacle courses, battle simulators, and then were prodded. After a few days of no sleep, we were brought back to the barracks for more food and the paralyzed sleep. I did not even notice at first when they brought Uto over—I did not notice my own brother was there until he was already in the barracks with us for a couple of weeks. Our bunks were randomized so one day I ended up straight across from him before I finally saw him, and I was not allowed to even say a word to him." Lia squeezes the cup, focusing on the burning from the hot liquid over anything else as she speaks. "A couple months went by before he bumped into me on the course and linked our omni-tools. They—whoever they are—disabled all external communication through our tools, but we still could make entries that we could send back to each other, sending each other quick memos in simulators in a shared file. It took us until three months ago to realize that the water was what was paralyzing us whenever we sleep. Uto stopped drinking it then and started sneaking more food to everyone—that's how he got so sick. We knew that the guards shut down after we went to sleep as we watched them power up every time, but it took us this long to try to escape with the only other person that we could communicate with."

"It could not have been easy." Shepard-Vakarian says far too simply.

"I left two hundred others in the same position that I was able to escape, for no other reason than I was able to communicate with someone else in there. I left two hundred others behind for no other reason than because I needed to save my brother. I got some one killed because I needed to save him, and now he is dead and there are still two-hundred others that I can no longer help, who no longer have the extra food that my brother dared to give them."

Shepard-Vakarian stares back at her, with some sort of sympathy that she cannot place. "Well, first of all, you are still helping them, because you found us and are working with us." This barely makes the Quarian feel better. "And second of all, I would have done the same thing to save my family, especially if I thought it was the only way they could survive."

Lia relaxes herself but is unable to fully process all that happened. She would not cry; Quarians were too tough to ever be caught doing something so weak. Instead she finds herself smiling, a strange smile that she cannot explain but does not reject.


	43. Brainstorm

Chapter 43

T'Gegos and Lorius arrive last to the Shepard-Vakarian love nest for the cover dinner party, carrying a convincing bottle of wine with them. They were playing off their arrival together simply as a case of they arrived in the elevator at the same time, but T'Gegos had been pestering Lorius about his choice to bring a bottle of wine with them since he picked it up during their lunch break.

The elevator opens to them being mid-conversation. "No, I don't know anything about wine. This one seemed popular though."

"On what basis?"

"Well there was a whole shelf of it and it wasn't dirt cheap." Lorius justifies.

"Uh-huh, and you have never thought of the fact that maybe there was a whole shelf of it because no one wanted it?" T'Gegos retorts.

Lorius pauses behind her before he has his revelation. "Well now I am!"

Anoin clears his throat to get their attention as they walk in, guiding them over to the seating area where they are all settled. Anoin was manning a data pad, ready to take notes on the meeting. Garrus was by the fireplace, with an old white board that was hidden in some abandoned corner of the apartment. Shepard-Vakarian sat slouching back against the back of the sofa, with Lia close enough to reach her. Bassius was back in the kitchen, grabbing a snack tray for no other reason than he did not want Shepard-Vakarian doing it.

"We brought wine!" Lorius greets. "Figured no impromptu dinner party would be complete without one."

"Thank you Lorius—you can put it down wherever." Shepard-Vakarian says politely, which reminds him that the hostess cannot drink at the moment. He sheepishly places it down on the nearest sideboard before heading down behind the Asari.

They are only able to read the board when they get down into the seating area, due to the careful angling on the board. It just has a few words on it; PDAT, Harkin, army, and red sand. He spaced the words out deliberately, apparently ready to connect the dots.

"I completely forgot about the red sand." Lorius sputters out without meaning to.

"Only you did. There just hasn't been any sign of it." T'Gegos adds as she sits in the corner opposite where Shepard-Vakarian and Lia are sitting.

"Well how much red sand are we talking about?" Lorius continues.

"Four tons." Anoin adds. "Can't be more specific."

"How are you doing on determining the composition of the poison? We just got fresh samples." He adds.

"Getting close."

Bassius drops the tray down and stands behind the sofa, between where Lia and T'Gegos are. "Well what can red sand be used for aside from selling it as a drug? Sometimes we used to use it as a gun powder."

"We?" Lia asks.

"Oh, my clan is full of well known pirates." Bassius clarifies. She quickly accepts this explanation.

"I mean it has some psychedelic effects—what are the odds that they are using it as a precursor for PDAT?" Lorius adds.

"Lyzia, hit him." Anoin demands. She complies, smacking him upside the head. "Bring your brain more often."

"He's onto something?" T'Gegos asks with a raised eyebrow.

"Easier to find red sand structure and compare it to possible structures of PDAT than to generate PDAT structure from scratch." Anoin finishes.

"If they are using it to make PDAT, it would explain why they have been taking the red sand, and why so much." Garrus postulates. "I don't imagine it would be too hard to hide even that much red sand in the ducts. Even though we have been at it for six months, we only have a fraction mapped out."

"I imagine that the bulk of the operation is connected to the barracks. It would be too difficult to defend anything spread out." Shepard-Vakarian adds.

"Yes, but don't the barracks seem too weakly guarded? Seems like a decoy." Garrus offers back.

"Any duct rat that goes there would likely drink the water; that defense would be enough with the turrets. It is an expendable point. I would not be surprised if they moved the barracks now that they know that they have been found."

"If they know—they just know that the Quarians have escaped. We know the guards are all androids. It is possible that they have not pulled all the pieces together."

"But the androids must be controlled somehow; whoever is orchestrating this is careful. Do you really think that he doesn't know?" Shepard-Vakarian rebuttals.

"The androids are actually fairly basic. Most of them are on a strict schedule. Only a small handful of them did anything when we got out of line." Lia juts in.

"Then how did they keep you so in check?" T'Gegos adds. "If there were no regular enforcers, then why didn't you leave sooner?"

"The androids weren't the only ones watching us; the original captives were conditioned to punish us whenever we broke one of the rules. Anytime one person ran away, their body would be dumped and two more would be killed." Lia justifies. "It was not so simple."

"Did you ever see anyone pulling the strings?" Lorius asks.

"No. There were a couple of Salarian scientists in the lab, but they died awhile ago."

"Then I don't think this is a deep in C Sec operation—this may just be a small organized sect." Shepard-Vakarian inputs.

"But when they are this organized, stopping the head of the operation will not likely stop the operation, especially when they are being so deeply conditioned." Garrus breaks in.

"So doesn't this mean that we could just switch one of them for one of us? We could get more information that way." Lorius thinks up.

"That would let us know what is going on with the army. Since the Quarians had their short-range links, I don't see why it wouldn't work." T'Gegos adds.

"It should be me—I am the newest in the crew." Bassius offers.

"Bassius, there is no Turian as young as you in there. It would be easier to hide me and to explain why I am missing." Lorius explains.

Anoin pulls up the stills from the security feed. "There are fourteen red Turians and most of them appear to be about the same build as Lorius."

Lia gets up and points at one of the Turians, one without any clan paint. "He is one of the originals and looks fairly like him. If you managed to get him out, you could probably get everything you need to know."

"I don't think he would know anything about the end game, but he is a good target." Garrus adds. "We can't free everyone, but we can definitely switch out one person."

"So we need to be on standby for when they come back in, what, three days?" Lorius plans.

T'Gegos stares at him skeptically. "Are you sure this is a good idea? It could be a trap."

He just shrugs.

"Think about it hard—we wouldn't want you to put yourself into that much danger without being sure." Shepard-Vakarian adds as the voice of reason.

"That still would only help explain what the plans for the army are. We still don't know how Harkin fits in with any of this, or what they are planning for PDAT." Garrus adds.

"It is the best lead we have." Shepard-Vakarian closes with.


	44. Poetry

Chapter 44

Shepard-Vakarian sprawled herself on the sofa, laying her head back on the oversized arm. She still had her data pad on her, but it was mostly resting on her side at this point, more of an accessory at this point than actually being used. Her bun fell out about an hour after she got home but she was not going to bother fixing it. Lia came out to check on her every few minutes. Shepard-Vakarian was going to ask her to stop spying on her for her husband, but she also was fairly certain that the Quarian just wanted some connection, even if she had not actually said anything to her since she got home two hours ago. The Quarian likely had not entirely decided if she could trust her rescuers but based on the fact that she was checking on her, she definitely wanted to.

Garrus arrive home soon after, toting a take-out container from their once favorite restaurant. He drops the container off on the island before heading to the bedroom to remove his armor, not realizing that she was already home. She does not greet him until her walks back out in his casual clothes. "Welcome home," she says simply.

"I didn't really expect to see you tonight, not with the big meeting tomorrow." He says as he bends down to kiss her forehead.

"Javik sent me a message complaining that the Hanar elected him Council representative. If he was contacted, it means that they are planning on agreeing to my proposal." It was a simple bait; she knew that none of the Hanar would actually be willing to be representatives, but their collective idolization of Protheans and Javik's admittance that he would like to move to Kahje after he finished his book with Liara made him the most likely pick for their representative. Because of his hatred for the Council he would complain about the role. That he would complain to Shepard-Vakarian was a gamble, but one that she was willing to bet on as she was the one he felt would best relate to the situation. "At this point, I have all of my points that I want to discuss with the new Council, so I just need to see what Tevos wants to do next, which is either going to be business as usual with an announcement to the general public, or she would want to do a full meeting of the whole Council in person."

"Either option would make sense with her especially since security was so tight at the last Council sponsored event." Granted, the last event was hijacked by a lone Turian and elderly female, so none of Tevos's plans were actually implemented. "But enough about work—I am sure that we will be struggling to find any time to ourselves either way."

"I'm going to need help getting up." Shepard-Vakarian says.

"No, you're not." He says with a smirk. "Scoot down." She does, and he gently lifts her head enough to rest her head in his lap as he puts his legs up on the ottoman. "Better?"

"Almost…" she then grabs his arm and eases his hand to the top of her stomach. His limbs are long enough that he can reach comfortably. Almost immediately after he puts his hand down he feels a strong kick against his hand. She smirks; "he says hi."

"And she?"

"Also kicking, but she is flipped." She explains. "They clocked in around four pounds each today; Doctor Firon thinks that it's only going to be four more weeks."

"He does? Wow…that's…"

"Soon? I know." She soothes. "But it beats waiting. We'll know."

Yes, but he also knows that it also could be the day she dies, and this time it will likely be permanent. He knows that they have finished developing the shot for the antibody, but no one knows for sure how well it will work. They only know that so far, they are sure that it works on tested blood cells, but with all of the modifications that were done on her, no one can be sure. He still has been leaving her in the dark, for no other reason that she should not have to worry about something that she has no control over. "True, but it makes it more real."

"Did you at least pick their names yet?"

After everything, she had insisted that he gets to pick their names. She gave herself ultimate veto power, but after she disappeared for so long it was the least she could do. He disagreed, but then she claimed that it make her happy if he did it, far happier than if she picked it herself. "I did—I even got them engraved on my visor already."

She glances up at his visor, carefully studying the ultra-small print framing the lens. Her name was on there, eventually altered to include her first name as well, and next to it she can barely make out the freshly engraved letters. "Artemis and Apollo; I like it."

"I knew you would. Maria pestered me on it last week, so she already painted their names on their cribs and adjusted their décor to match."

"So we now have a Greek inspired nursery?" Shepard-Vakarian was banned from the room until the paint fumes completely dissipated.

"Sun and moon; it's actually coming together quite nicely. Apparently there is an old poet who used to do poems involving them."

"I know it. 'Yours is the light by which my spirit's born: you are my sun, my moon, and all my stars.' I think it is by E E Cummings."

"Same guy, but the one she was using was much longer." He opens it up on his tablet. He was working on memorizing it, but it was taking more time than he had anticipated.

 _i carry your heart with me(i carry it in_

 _my heart)i am never without it(anywhere_

 _i go you go, my dear; and whatever is done_

 _by only me is your doing, my darling)_

 _i fear_

 _no fate(for you are my fate, my sweet) i want_

 _no world(for beautiful you are my world, my true)_

 _and it's you are whatever a moon has always meant_

 _and whatever a sun will always sing is you_

 _here is the deepest secret nobody knows_

 _(here is the root of the root and the bud of the bud_

 _and the sky of the sky of a tree called life; which grows_

 _higher than the soul can hope or mind can hide)_

 _and this is the wonder that's keeping the stars apart_

 _i carry your heart (i carry it in my heart)_

He reads it out loud, emphasizing the words was he was sure they should be emphasized. He gets about half way through before realizing that he does know the rest of it, so he puts his tablet down and strokes her loose red tendrils.

"That's a better one." She says sleepily, as if she were waking from a dream.

"Yes…yes it is."


	45. Frustrations

Chapter 45

"I move to pass the motion to expand the Council for complete representation of all species in Citadel space." Tevos wastes no time introducing. "Shepard is correct; it would allow for greater ease of resource sharing and promote peace within the galaxy. Despite the detriments that it may have to how the Council runs, the overall benefit is too great to not be implemented, especially since the representatives have already been chosen."

"As you may have heard already, we are promoting Calyn, the current Elcor ambassador, to become the Council representative. Additionally, the Hanar are insisting that the Prothean must represent the Hanar and the Drell. By some minor miracle, he agreed." Valern picks up.

"Won't the promotion of Calyn cause additional animosity from the current Volus representative?" Shepard brings up, directing the question to Sparatus.

"I will handle that. Din Korlack is simply too xenophobic to have on the Council. His tendency to alienate species will work against our goals. If it comes to it, I am prepared to have him sent back to Irune. I do believe that since his goal of having the Volus represented will calm him substantially."

"Either way we cannot worry about the behavior of one individual when we have to appeal to the masses, despite what your typical approach." Tevos begins.

Shepard heard it before in many ways. She knows it is true; the need of one can never outweigh the needs of the whole. She knew it and she lived it the best she could throughout her career. She knew the Turians were willing to fight such that they win if just one person survives, but if she had her choice she would try to appease the masses. She thought she had been doing it well too, as she had been carefully navigating between her roles for the Council, the Alliance, and even Cerberus while she nearly single-handedly saved the galaxy multiple times in the past ten years. She really did not need the lecture.

"Speaking of which, we understand the human need to share their genetic material and have large families, but we find that your decision to have a child at this point is quite irresponsible." Valern mentions.

"Are you really bringing this up now? This is frankly none of your business." Sparatus speaks his outrage before Shepard completely registers what the Salarian had said.

"Given the fact that not a single half-Turian mother has survived I have to agree with Valern." Tevos mentions.

Shepard was more than well aware of this fact. It was the elephant in the room that she was avoiding completely. She knew this for months now, even before she thought the children were Turian. She bites the inside of her cheek to keep civil.

Tevos continues; "I must insist that you appoint a replacement in the fairly likely event that you will be unable to attend the meeting."

"As outraged as I am about this even being brought up, I must agree. You are very well aware about how difficult it is to find a human both suitable and willing to fill the role. Either way, it would also allow you to easily take some leave." Sparatus is again the voice of reason.

"I have my assistant working on it now." Shepard dismisses and quickly changes the subject. "Are we addressing the changes in Specter responsibilities and obligations? I still think that we should have options prepared before the expansion."

"That brings us to our next order of business. In order to best incorporate these changes to the Council, we should hold a public meeting with all Specters and Council representatives." Tevos explains. "The Quarians have approximated that it will take four weeks for Han'Gerrel vas Neema to recover from his acclimation to Rannoch. Thusly, I have arranged to have the Summit then. Please alert all of your Specters and keep General Faust posted on all of their travel plans."

"Faust will be handling all security related to the event and we need to coordinate where we will hold all incoming vessels." Valern explains. "He was quite pleased with the opportunity to try his new protocols and he has not let us down before."

By Shepard's count, there were currently about sixty Specters galaxy wide, not including herself. The Citadel could easily handle their ships, but with the media correspondents and the dignitaries, as well as the regular traffic, it will take careful planning to organize the docks as well. "Are the refugee docks cleared yet?"

"Yes, but they are not open to the public yet." Sparatus says.

"We might as well keep it closed until after the summit; opening up another dock just in time for several to be decommissioned, even for a day or two, would be more complicated." Shepard inputs.

"Agreed." Valern concurs.

Tevos nods along; "I will stall plans to reincorporate it into rotation." She clears her throat and changes the subject. "If that is it, we will adjourn today's meeting. I will send out the agenda to each of you later this week. Shepard-Vakarian; find a replacement. Sparatus; work with Faust on security. Valern; control what the media releases. If anyone is looking for a statement, direct them to him. Hopefully they will get frustrated and drop it."

With that the holograms shut down, leaving Shepard alone on the balcony of the embassy. She grabs the nearest thing to her and tosses it against the wall. Her small out burst does nothing aside from leaving her with a tablet on the ground and no easy way to pick it up. She sighs and grabs her old rifle from its case and uses it to slide the tablet up the wall until she could easily reach it.

She then heads back inside, pausing to place her tablet back on the desk. She is left instead with her assault rifle in her hands, with more dust collected than it had in her fifteen years of service. It may not be used again, but it does not need to collect dust like this. She digs out a cleaning kit from the back of her drawer, and sits behind her desk carefully disassembling her old weapon. It may not be something she had to do, but she takes the opportunity to sit back and turn her brain off. She slowly works on each component until they shine as if they were brand new.

After she has polished it, she is left just staring at the wall, avoiding the stack of files that she was hoping she had resolved when she took the position.


	46. Aid

Chapter 46

Lorius sits against the decrepit walls in the ducts, staying out of the way of his scurrying partners. He absent-mindedly scratches at the subdermal patch that Anoin injected earlier that morning, left with nothing better to do. If he helped them arrange their supplies he would only be offering false promises for the ease of their evening to come. His only job was to find a Turian that he could switch himself with, find a way to get him mobile, and to switch their personas. He knew which one he was supposed to find, but there were two-hundred-sixty something people and there are thirteen others who look fairly similar. He cannot just ask him to respond to his name; they would all be paralyzed by the time they could be sure that the androids are shut down.

Lyzia laid out over four hundred dermal nutrient patches on a tarp. They were not much, but she could easily slap a patch on each captive to help them maintain their surely dwindling strength. She wanted to find saline drips for them as well, but she simply did not have the skill or the time to set them up. The dermal patches provide a bit of hydration, but definitely not enough to make up for months of a sip of poisoned water per week.

Bassius was in charge of getting vitals and identifying each survivor. They were only going to be in there for a couple hours; they still wanted to make sure that they got enough sleep. He had syringes set for everyone as well; one for drawing blood and one for an immune booster.

Garrus arranged the supplies from avenues that he assured them would not be traced, but was not going to divulge more than that. There was no proof that he legally obtained them, but there was no real alternative.

Lorius watched Lyzia as she silently mouths out her plan for how she is going to process each person and where she can safest hide the patches from anyone inspecting them in the first couple of days before they dissolved into their skin. She makes a quick nod after she is satisfied with her plan before accidentally catching Lorius's eye.

"Stop scratching." She says simply, in an angry whisper. They were sure that the door was sound proof but she did not want to risk it.

"It itches." He responds emotionlessly.

"No, it doesn't. I tested it on Bassius first." Anoin chimes in through the com link.

"Bassius was tortured by pirates. A little itching would not bug him." Lorius defends.

"Didn't you have years of military training?" Bassius jokes.

"Even so, scratching will bring attention to it. We can't risk your cover being blown and our only way to track you being destroyed." Lyzia adds. "Besides, are you really worried about an itchy arm when you are entering a situation where people have been tortured, starved, and poisoned on a regular basis?"

"Leave him be Lyzia. It's probably better that he be distracted." Bassius adds.

"Yeah, I'm about to be one of them."

This point shuts Lyzia up quickly.

"Anoin how's the timeline looking?" Lorius changes the subject.

"Tossing out the glasses now. Five minutes. Three more dead."

"Target still okay?" He asks.

"Only humans dead today."

"Bassius, make sure you identify the dead. I got samples from the long dead last time so they shouldn't be hard to tell the difference."

"I got it. Just hang back. I can take the lead; just focus on your target." Bassius reassures.

"Right. You got this." He says emotionlessly. "Oh, I don't need this." He removes his holster from his left hip with his emergency side arm on it. "Lyzia, hold onto this for me?"

"Yeah." She responds simply as she takes the gun.

"Androids down." Anoin crackles in moments later.

Bassius immediately activates his omni-tool to deactivate the traps on the door. It opens easily, revealing the completely utilized barracks. Everyone is completely paralyzed, but Lyzia can see eyes following them as they walk in.

"We're here to help. The blue Turian is going to take DNA samples so we can find out who you are, and what they have been drugging you with. He is also going to inject you with boosters to improve your health—it's a simple steroid and antibiotic complex. We checked your records to make sure none of you were allergic. I will be going around attaching nutrient patches to hydrate you and give you some more nutrients. I know it is not much, but it is all that we can do with our current resources." She explains with as calming of a voice as she can manage.

Lorius starts searching the bunks to find the red Turian without clan markings. He makes it about three quarters through the room before he finds him on a top bunk. He climbs up and rotates the Turian so that he lands on his feet when he is lowered to the ground, leaning against the two bunks beneath him. He then hops down to gently lay him on the ground. He then forces the man to throw up, hoping that the decreases dosage will get the poison out of his system.

Bassius and Lyzia check each person as he cleans up the puddle of vomit, tossing the rags in with Bassius's pile of trash. He returns to find his doppelganger now able to flare his mandibles; it was a start. He then pulls out a can of face paint and copies his markings onto him, as carefully as he can, and then fades it to look as if it were worn all day in case anyone saw him between there and his apartment.

"What are you doing?" the unknown Turian says as more of his motion returns.

"We are getting you out of here. Your name is First Lieutenant Ephentos Lorius for now; First Lieutenant Lyzia T'Gegos will get you updated on everything and correct your face paint each day until we can arrange to get everyone out." He explains. "Take off your clothes—I am going to be you in the mean time so we can find out more about what is happening here." He does as ordered but moves clumsily.

Bassius returns from the shoot, with the smell of rotting flesh lingering on him. He then immediately starts down the next side of barracks, keeping careful track of each sample. Lyzia finishes her task and then busies herself with their water source to get more samples. She also grabs one of their food servings so they can be prepared to see how malnourished everyone will be when they can finally free them. She gets a glass of water and pours out just a bit more than a sip.

She heads over to Lorius just after he has gotten the beat-up rags on. "Ephentos…you should take this."

He takes the water and chugs it down in a single gulp. He briefly rests his hand on her cheek before climbing up to the top bunk.

Lyzia then helps the other Turian to his feet and moves him outside to wait in the hallway while Bassius finishes his rounds.

"How do you feel about seafood? We usually go out on this day of the week." She explains a bit strangely.

"Fine with me." He says simply. She studies his marks carefully, and finds that almost anyone who do not know him as well as she does would not notice the variations between the two. "You alright?"

The words sound foreign coming out of his mouth. She shakes herself out of it. "Who are you anyway?"

"Theran Medethis." He says simply.

"To anyone else, you need to be Ephentos Lorius. Do not forget."


	47. Fight

Chapter 47

The study is crowded with paper files. They are sorted into seemingly random piles, with an order that could only possibly be understood by Shepard-Vakarian. She has no reason to go into the embassy, so she might as well find her replacement in peace. The room has not really changed since Anderson left her the building, but she is alright with leaving it as is. There is really no reason to change anything at this point, at least not by her. Garrus can, but she is not going to bother.

The Commander looks to her wall clock; seventeen hundred hours. Garrus should be home soon, that is if he comes home at all today. At this point she is not sure if he is avoiding her or if he was just busy working on the case but each case seems equally likely at this point. She debates stopping for the day, but getting up would be too much trouble so she just continues reading through the over five-hundred files to see if anyone will be a decent fit.

She rejects two more files when she notices her Turian leaning against the doorframe, simply watching her as she thinks. She acknowledges him by glancing up and giving just the slightest smile his way.

"Sorry about last night—I needed to supervise the exchange in case something went south."

"And there were plenty of ways to go south. I am actually a bit surprised you let them go through with it." She says as she slouches back in her seat, now giving him her undivided attention.

"Following your lead actually. You would have preferred to put yourself in, but a volunteer of your own crew would have been your next best bet." He explains as he sits in the seat on the other side of her desk.

"You have a point." She digs a data pad off of her desk. "By the way, Lorius asked me to process these, off the books. He seemed to think you did not have a way to do it without getting caught."

He slides through the files quickly. "He requested these?"

"He did. He came by my office on his lunch break just over a week ago with some samples."

"But Anoin would have been in charge of any samples obtained."

"I have more resources and less restriction. If I were in his position, I would have recruited someone to process them for me in house on a private server, which you do not currently have in C-Sec."

Garrus does not immediately respond, but rather reads the data more carefully. Each victim is identified, along with details about their conditions until their deaths. They all had some unidentified drug in their systems with batches of the dead having the same, but each batch has a different variant of it. "I don't know how much of this is new compared to what we found out from Lia."

"He had the right intentions though, even going so far as too hide how the bodies were disposed until he had to."

"They all have been doing much better than I could have imagined. Lorius has accepted that he is supposed to be in a leadership position. T'Gegos is better at following orders and has become more level-headed about the process. Bassius has proved that he belongs in the service and not as a waiter." He boasts.

"And Specialist Anoin?"

"I'm not so sure yet. He is just focusing on getting what is required of him done, but he is clearly working on something on his own. I'm sure Lorius knew what he was up to, but I'm still in the dark." He reports, oddly okay with the secrecy in his own department. "How is Lia doing?"

"She is acting as my assistant, but there is not much to do since I'm not needed at the Embassy."

Garrus freezes momentarily with a furrowed brow. "What do you mean you aren't needed in the embassy?"

"It would seem that the Council has found out the statistics of half-Turian families and have decided that I should once again focus on finding a replacement, instead of helping with the Summit. So, here I am going through files again while they have General Faust working on security instead of me while they arrange for the rest of the representatives to arrive from their corners of the galaxy." She complains. "Security arrangements are the one thing I actually like arranging in this position."

Garrus's eyes fall. He had hoped that she was not aware of her mortality. He freezes, trying to process words. He quickly switches to subdued rage instead, doing all he can to prevent his mandibles from flaring. "How did they broach that subject?"

"Valern brought it up before he even could finish the announcement that the Council expansion was approved. I believe his exact words were 'having a child at this point was quite irresponsible' and Tevos then had to bring up that not a single mother of half-Turians has survived. I mean, Sparatus did call them out for it, but even he agreed that I had to find a replacement." She sighs, pausing her research for just a moment as she collects herself before burying herself back in the work.

He studies her carefully, his eyes slightly glassy as he processes the news more fully. "You knew?"

She looks up, giving him undivided attention.

"You knew the whole time?"

"When I first realized I was pregnant, I immediately started digging through the net to try to convince myself that it was not a result of the attack. I read every article I could find and figured it was simply impossible as out of the interspecies couples, only that handful was able to conceive, and they weren't in their mid thirties with multiple organs regrown over the years. When we were told the truth, I immediately looked at them again and looked for any follow-up articles I could find, but they all rang the same news." She explains bluntly.

He absorbs this news carefully. "So…you also knew it could have been possible, and yet you still stayed away for that long?"

"I did not think it was remotely possible. There may not be any well-known human-Turian couples in the galaxy, but I figured there were bound to be hundreds scattered around. I was so messed up by the attack that I immediately assumed the worst possible scenario. I did not want anyone to know what was wrong so I hid in my armor, going for offenses that were more reckless than I usually would have. I just hoped it would go away, but of course it didn't. I was well aware of that each time I felt it flutter, even when I took the hardest hits. I couldn't face you, knowing what I knew, so I kept away, hoping it would resolve itself." She speaks frankly, as bluntly as if she were giving a report.

This breaks the usually understanding Turian. "You tried to kill our children?"

"No, I tried to kill Harkin's child."

"I would have raised it with you either way—it would have been our child either way."

"Do you really think I would have been able to raise a child conceived under those circumstances?"

"So, you were going to kill it? You, the same person who sacrificed her life over and over again to save every person that you could when the whole galaxy was under attack, can't sacrifice a few more months?"

"It wouldn't have been months; it would have been years. Do you really think it would have been possible to hide the fact that the child was completely human? People know I was attacked and it wouldn't take much for them to figure out that I was raped as well. On top of that, even if I decided that I could put it up for adoption, it would be too public. Everyone would know what we did, so we would become pariahs. All of our accomplishments would have been forgotten and the child would be hated by nearly everyone who met it."

"Your reputation is more important than a life?" Garrus actually gets up from his seat as he yells.

"It's not just my reputation; I am the representative of my species. It would reflect poorly on all humans and diminish all progress we have made in the past thirty years."

"It is still a life."

"It wasn't a life yet. It was a parasite." She sits with a clenched jaw as she rebuts.

"I can't believe this…how could you be so…"

"Don't you dare call me selfish."

"Well I don't know what else to call it."

She glares at him, but does not rebuttal. "I think you need to cool off."

"Fine." He storms off, leaving her alone to struggle through the files once more.


	48. Adjustment

Chapter 48

T'Gegos leans back into her chair, looking at the inventories that Lorius was searching through for the past few months. It was one of his primary tasks, although he did admittedly help her filtering the commonalities between all of the victims, although it was not as productive a search. So far, she only had the list of items from their evidence lockup searches, as well as the records related to each file that they determined that the items were missing from. She had worked every name related to the cases but only their supervisor's supervisor of the arresting officer was common, but given how high up that was it would not be a surprise.

She glances over to Lorius's desk, wondering how long they could keep up the rouse. Sure, Theran Medethis looked similar enough to him to most people. Except for the most discerning detective who new about how his mandibles flared whenever he was deep in thought or the ancient scar that was barely visible by the edge of his collar. She was good at relating footage to her perp, so she could pick up on these details, but she is not sure who else can. Granted, very few actually step into their workspace, but she was still skeptical.

Medethis had the rank of private first class in the Turian army, so he was no stranger to paperwork before he finished his required service. He was supposedly on vacation before he determined what he wanted to do next when he was taken so there was no reason that he could not process their arrests from their required morning patrols, even though that was usually Bassius's task. This left Bassius to process the DNA samples while Anoin worked on verifying the structure of PDAT.

The Colonel had arrived before them that morning, which was only slightly unusual. He always would check in on them about an hour into their investigation time each day, but today he was just hiding in his office. She did not like anything that would imply, but she still tried to focus.

She tries grouping the arresting officers instead; she needed to turn her brain off. Searching files was mind-numbing enough. She grabbed a piece of paper and starting grouping them at first by species. Not surprisingly, most of the arrests were by Turians. Then there were more Asari arresting than humans, and just slightly less Salarian arresting than humans. It all followed the ratios of the species of the officers in C Sec. There were a few different analysts, mostly Salarian, but even that was not a surprise as seventy percent of their analysts were Salarian. Everything made perfect sense allowing nothing to stand out on its own.

Medethis drops a large stack of files on Bassius's desk, who immediately starts signing them. She perks up when she realizes that Bassius was signing all of the files as the arresting officer. There was no rule against it, as Bassius was marked as the group trainee. It was a shortcut to allow trainees to file the paperwork for all of their supervisors. So long as the officer could be traced to the trainee, it was allowed. Similarly, it allowed for a person in a group like theirs, where it was documented that all four of them always worked together, for any member on the team to file the paperwork.

"Anoin, can you encrypt my searches for the rest of the day?" She asks, knowing that her searching all personnel files would draw attention to herself.

"I can't, but Lorius's data pad is already encrypted if you know his password." He says without looking up from his own setup.

"What makes you think I know his passwords?"

Anoin and Bassius exchange glances at each other, until Bassius speaks up. "Because you regularly cover him when he is late on his verifications?"

"I cover you and Anoin as well." She argues, ignoring whatever they are implying.

Medethis speaks up. "I thought we had a thing going on?" The way he had adjusted to the language it almost seemed like he had to assume an identity before. She did not like it but it was useful.

"No, we didn't." She speaks flatly.

"Yeah, okay." He almost seems to roll his eyes as he speaks, almost like his counterpart would have.

She sighs and heads to his desk, knowing full and well that it is still hidden in his bottom drawer with his snacks. She may not know his password for sure, but she is fairly certain that he still hid it in the bag of chips that he had been using as a trash bag. It was not a good hiding spot, but no one would necessarily think that it was an important scrap of paper. In the same bag he would have ten other scraps of paper with as random combinations of letters and numbers. It takes her just a couple of seconds on each scrap before she recognizes which one it would be, for no other reason than it is the only one that does not look like a secure password, but she knows that is the right one.

She types it in quickly and ignores the half smirk from Medethis. She just sighs and moves the focus off of her; "I have a new direction to look into. How is it going on the science front?"

"Verified structure." Anoin says simply.

"Turns out it is literally a variant of tetrodotoxin but it has sulfurs instead of oxygen. It took humans over a century to develop an antidote but Anoin thinks he can derive the new one within the week." Bassius clarifies with much more enthusiasm. "He tried the old one and it almost worked so he is just fine tuning it."

"Great, now we just need to figure out if we can make enough for whatever is going to happen." T'Gegos adds.

"And you do not have a lot of time to do it." Medethis adds cryptically.

"Do you happen to have a timeline to share with us?" She adds with a raised eyebrow.

"All I know is that things were winding down so there must be an endgame. They stopped running tests on us a couple of weeks ago and I was assigned to distribute armor to everyone. Don't you have a bug on your guy?"

"The Colonel—Garrus—is in charge of that."

"Then I am sure he will more on that."


	49. Advisement

Chapter 49

Lia sits in the back of the cab with all of her senses hyperaware of everything around her. She had been out of her exosuit for just over a week now but was still surprised to noticed how dulled her senses were in her past ten years, possibly even before on the flotilla as well. Even now she could better identify the hum of the engine, the buzz of traffic, and even the faint smell of vomit masked by layers of antiseptic. It was strange, not quite overwhelming, but it was all new. Something else for her to keep her mind on instead.

She catches a glance of herself in the rearview mirror. She really does pass as a human with her simple disguise. Maria had followed through on her promise of getting her ear prosthetics and fingers, so it only took a little bit of makeup to complete the transformation. With a collection of long loose skirts she was relatively undetectable as a Quarian.

The taxi stops at the embassy. She transfers her credits from her new account and looks around to see the completely unobstructed view of the Presidium. The colors seem so much brighter now without a tinted shield obstructing. She sighs and simply turns around to approach the human embassy.

"Hello, I have a meeting with Councilor Shepard-Vakarian." She says to the receptionist as if she has no idea who she is looking for, as just another precaution.

The receptionist sighs deeply; "Name?"

"Leah Ganim. She should be expecting me." The fake name was the most obvious precaution, but easy to recover from if she were to start the wrong name.

"Right past the double doors." He says with obvious annoyance, but opens the door with his omni-tool anyways.

"Thank you." She says with slight confusion.

Shepard-Vakarian is sitting on her sofa with a stack of folders dominating her desk instead. She only has a single data pad on her. "Good morning Leah, I'm glad you were able to find the place okay. Your primary role for your internship is for you to go through the files on the desk. See if any of them match the criteria on the data pad. I may throw some more at you over the next two weeks but of these there may only be one or two who meet all of the criteria—although it would be good if you bookmarked the ones that meet all but one or two components in case we don't find any."

"Yes ma'am. What other duties do you expect of me?" The Quarian tries to speak as if she had never spent a night in her new boss's guest room.

"There is nothing else. I know it is boring, but this is our top priority. I am here if you have any questions but unfortunately I have another top priority item that I cannot currently delegate." Shepard-Vakarian tries to hide the exhaustion in her voice but Lia had already begun to notice some of her tendencies.

"Alright then." She starts at the pile. They are all personnel files of various high ranking humans all across the galaxy. The checklist is fairly extensive; no political agenda, no attachments at one particular location, no xenophobic tendencies, no doormat tendencies, as well as having no inclination towards wanting power. Half of the requirements are difficult to determine based on a piece of paper.

By the count, she is on the search for someone who is good at handling tough decisions but does not want to be in the position to have to make decisions as well as willing to prioritize the needs of all people above his own.

It does not take her long to realize that she is looking for a replacement for Shepard-Vakarian. It takes her even less time to realize that she should not bring up why.

The door opens after a while of Shepard-Vakarian and Lia working silently in opposite ends of the room. Lia glances up from her stack to see a high ranking C Sec officer walk in.

"Good day Mrs. Vakarian." He greets with a voice that is surprisingly familiar to her.

Shepard-Vakarian freezes up at the title. "Major General Faust. What brings you here today?"

"I need to verify that you will be attending the Summit in order to finalize the security protocols."

"Yes, I will be there." A tinge of a bite appears in her voice.

"I thought your replacement would be taking over by then? And given your blood pressure, headaches, and dizziness along with your impending due date, you really should be resting at home." He asserts.

"That is none of your business." She says as she puts her data pad aside, resting it on the sofa beside her.

"But as the head of the security for the Summit, I do need to know all variables."

"I do appreciate that, however medical records, in both my culture and your, are private records. Accessing those records was a breach of protocol."

"I needed to assess the risk of you coming. As it is, you are enough of a target and now I also have to evaluate medical staff to be on standby."

"I am aware that I am a target, but as the first human Specter, acting Councilor, and 'hero of the galaxy' I will be there unless I am physically incapable. If my replacement is determined before then, he will also be there." She explains as simply as she can.

"You have not found him yet?"

"No as humans do not have a clear line of succession for these positions. Typically we would vote on such a thing but we have lost our infrastructure to hold such a vote so my assistant and I are personally searching through thousands of candidates for the best man for the job."

"But Mrs. Vakarian…"

She cuts him off before he can get his argument in. "Commander Shepard-Vakarian."

"Mrs. Vakarian, I have to advise against this. You know you are likely to be dead by then, and even if you are still alive I know you be simply waiting for your expiration date." Faust explains emotionlessly.

"Okay. I have been advised. Good luck with your preparations, now please vacate the premises." She says firmly.

He looks as if he is going to say something else, but the glare of the tiny N7 causes him to change his mind.

Lia flinches as she tries to decide if she should do anything about the confrontation, but Shepard-Vakarian simply grabs her data pad and resumes working.

"Let's get back to work Leah." Shepard-Vakarian states distantly when she feels eyes on her back.


	50. Updates

Chapter 50

The sofa in the corner of Garrus's office had well used over the past seven months. Between all the times he did not feel like he belonged in Shepard's apartment without her, all the cases he just wanted to finish before he went back, and all the times he thought that would be the night he found the crack he needed to get the captives back, he had slept on it many times. In all that, he never suspected that he would be sleeping on it because he had a fight with his wife.

A fight which he had no right to bring up or to even be mad about. Yes, she disappeared for six months and he thought he was okay with that, especially since they were separated for over six months after they dealt with the Collectors, but this was harder. She was officially his problem. Before he was always concerned about her, but he could separate it into a box in the back corner of his mind. The worry could disappear for a while, at least long enough for him to get his job done. But now, it was more consuming than that.

She was his guiding star throughout the Reaper War, the thing that allowed him to remember that there was something out there that he could fight for, even if everything went south on Palaven. If she were his guiding star before, now she was his sun. She was the thing that had the most power to heal him, the thing that could always be counted on when he needed something but could not place what it is.

The missing six months were an eclipse. She had disappeared leaving him to fend alone in the dark. She too was in the dark, and he knew that, but sometimes he could only remember that he was and he needed sun. He knew it was wrong, and that he was wrong for even being mad that she needed space, but that meant that he was not her sun, at least not yet.

He was willing to be wrong here, especially with so little time left, but he still was just trying to find the best way to apologize as the prescribed flowers and chocolate just did not seem to be enough.

Garrus is barely in focus when his earpiece crackles on.

"Colonel—I have an update." Lorius speaks clearly, with no attempt to lower his voice from any eavesdroppers.

He sits up and composes himself as quickly as he can before responding; "Go on Lieutenant."

"Turns out everyone here is fairly autonomous. We only have a handful of androids watching us at any time, but I'm sure Medethis already told you."

Garrus had done the debrief himself. But there was very little new information from Medethis than they already had gotten from Lia. The picture was not very clear yet as neither of them could remember how they were abducted. They only remembered getting ready to board a ship to their next destination and then waking up in a lab run by elderly Salarians who started to inject them with something while they were strapped to a table for some time before some more senior captives released them into the general population. They then were given their first dose of PDAT and slept before they started a rigorous boot camp, focusing on agility and military tactics. Every few cycles they would go back for more testing by the Salarians but otherwise it was status quo. If someone died, the body was stashed in the corner of the training site until they went back to the living quarters where they were then tossed down the chute. The captives were largely left to their own devices during training—the androids did not seem to care what they did so long as they followed orders. They were allowed to scheme about running away, but those who tried were always swiftly executed. Neither Lia nor Medethis had any indication of who was in charge, but Garrus did take solace in the fact that they were allowed to hope. "Yes, he told me," Garrus replies simply.

"This morning an android assigned a human, a Batarian, and myself to hand out uniforms tomorrow. I am currently working with them to sort through some brand new standard issue C Sec armor."

"How new?"

"Newer than Bassius's set."

"Damn."

"Yes sir, damn." Lorius automatically responds. "When we finish sorting I will check with the group in charge of weapon distribution, but they are not mobilizing as fast. We have training pistols here but the crates were legit with our insignia on them."

Garrus sighs deeply. "Do you have anything else to report?"

"Other than a gut feeling that we are almost done here. This feels like an end game."

"I know, but you know how to make the tough calls if it comes to it, no matter what your record states. Hang in there and keep everyone's spirits up."

"Will do Garrus." With that Lorius disconnects.

Garrus sighs, rubbing the exhaustion out of his eyes before getting back up to his feet. He was finally getting a full image in his head after far too long of this investigation and the picture was not good.

First was the red sand. It was systematically being stolen from the crates in evidence lockup and being converted into the poison PDAT that was a highly effective paralytic that was in a quantity that would like be enough to taint a whole space station, even as large as the Citadel. Who was deriving it was not known, but whoever it was had nearly unlimited time and funding which meant that there must be a hidden lab in the ducts that is run by some Salarians who were either coerced by fear or by intrigue.

Next was the captives. Two hundred-fifty-five people were plenty to run a fairly large attack, especially when they were as well armed as they were. They all had some sort of experiments run on them which was a strong enough treatment to give Quarians a strong enough immune system to thrive without their exosuits and likely improve traits of the others. Additionally, they were being taken on the docks, without any video feed or anyone noticing the abduction. This also meant that whoever it was had the power to access the feeds whenever they wanted.

Then there was Harkin. Sure, he was likely just hired to hide that the people were missing, but it was a bit of a reckless call and this person was not reckless at all. It was done early on before the people were just blatantly stolen with no attempt to try and hide them. Whoever this was had the power to access prison records and to free a prisoner without anyone noticing for however long Harkin was free, which was probably on the scale of weeks. Then Harkin was killed while in interrogation without a follow up investigation. And no one really questioned it.

The weapons were stolen, but were only outfitted as training gear, which was once a standard protocol after an investigation was completed. Now, new weapons and armor were supplied with fresh C Sec insignias without any record of it in the records.

The androids were a mystery but without looking at them he cannot know how they fit in but they were looking at someone with a lot of power, a lot of funds, and a lot of access.

Garrus is not sure who was in charge yet, but he can already figure out that the end game has something to do with the Summit. And whatever it is, it cannot be good.


	51. Captivity

Chapter 51

Lorius had thought he had known exhaustion before, but five days straight of non-stop training made him miss the all-nighters he used to pull trying to get loose ends tied up at C Sec. Right now, he is on standby for his next round on the course, with his assigned partners beside him; a human by the name of Daniel Donahue, and a Batarian who simply went by Boro. He lucked out; everyone was aware of who he was and many had already determined why he was there, but they were not disrupting their routine because of it. This made it his ideal situation. He was trusted without having to lie.

His partners were trying their best to help him remain undetected by the androids, but they could only do so much when they were even more worn down than him. They remembered how bad it was when they first started and were thankfully sympathetic to his situation. They nudged him each time he started dozing. He understood why, even though he wanted nothing more than to get just a moment of sleep but that would just make things worse in the future.

"So how exactly did this plan of yours work?" Boro asks. Lorius had explained it to him before but it kept his mind off another round of nearly the exact same training course that was slightly more difficult than he ever had tried before but after running it nine times he already was starting to memorize it. He just had to get through today and then they would finally be able to get some sleep.

"I'm just here for recon right now, to give any information new that can help them stop whatever end game it is, which I think my boss thinks is related to the Council Summit." He stares at his gun as he tries to remember the details.

"And what is the Council Summit?" Donahue continues from his other side.

"Commander Shepard-Vakarian suggested that the Council expand to represent all species in Citadel space as well as reevaluate the way that the Council runs things to be more efficient but also more transparent. When the rest of the Council approved her plan, the Asari representative insisted on a Summit where they publicly discussed this and it becomes public record for everyone. The Summit will additionally address the abilities and responsibilities of Specters to decrease ability of rogue Specters to occur." He tries to recall the Asari's name but it is stuck behind the fog.

"And who is Commander Shepard-Vakarian?" Boro adds next.

"She is the first human Specter and currently acting as the human Council member. She put her name in a few weeks ago to permanently assume the position but the rest of the Council rejected the proposal as her pregnancy is too dangerous and they assume she will not survive but that is not public record so forget that you know that."

"Wait, Shepard-Vakarian is pregnant? You mentioned that she and your boss were married but not the pregnancy." Donahue continues as they all march forward as the current group finishes the course, leaving only two more before they have to run it.

"Oh yeah. So Turians have this thing where they perform a private ceremony to join their partners into the clan. Roughly ninety percent of the time it results in conception but it was not expected to be possible with a human partner but it turns out it happens a handful of times but never ends up well."

"Never ends up well?" Boro this time, but he seems more apathetic to the conversation than anything.

"As in no mother has survived yet and only a couple of children have. They think they solved the problem but after the Harkin incident they really deserved a happy end to that chapter."

"Harkin incident?" Donahue actually seems invested.

"So, remember how I told you that she was captured by an android while at dinner and that is how we determined that the kidnappings were related? Well in the middle of the raid I caught Harkin fucking her and we hid it from Garrus and then she ran off and everything was status quo for awhile. There were rumors on the extranet that she was pregnant and she made Anoin block all related information from Garrus's devices. As soon as Anoin told us what happened we put two and two together the same way that she did. She spent six months thinking she was carrying a rapist's child and was hiding from her husband because of it. But then they discovered that the twins were half Turian and they were over the moon until they determined what that actually meant."

"Over the moon?" Boro looks for clarification on terms that he did not know.

"Human colloquialism to mean very excited. Come on Boro, we discussed these." Donahue teases as they move forward once more as they are next in line.

Lorius smirks involuntarily. Humans and Batarians typically did not get along but here everything is different; the barriers were weaker. "One human type girl and a Turian type boy—which thank Spirits half Turians always show traits of one of the species as a blend would look so weird."

"Or they could look like Quarians?" Donahue interjects. "But maybe taller and a bit bonier? Oh but the faces…I can't imagine a Turian face with human skin."

The Turian behind them clears his throat, quite loudly.

"Well can you Darius?" Donahue emphasizes.

This placates the Turian.

The buzzer signals them to move forward. It does not take them any time to react. They simply switch their guns from their backs and into their hands and starting shooting their way through the cluster of androids, each with their assault rifles shooting continuously. They stagger their shots so that they do not reload at the same time. Lorius and Boro work with concussive rounds while Donahue occasionally blasts a few shockwaves to push them back as they move through.

Tactically this mission is not too difficult; they just have to shoot through the crowd without getting hit. The androids looked like regular people and initially are surprised to see them each trial, but they grab their side arms as soon as the squad approaches and shoot for dear life at them.

The mission was not to learn to fight. It was to execute crowds. That was the hard part.


	52. Testing

Chapter 52

Anoin stares blankly at the screen. The purity was nearly perfect, but it needs to be better. The mass spectrometer showed the isomer peak at less than one percent compared to the primary product, which should hopefully do what he needs, but there is no real way to be sure himself. He could do one more recrystallization, but after fourteen, one more was not going to do anything, especially since he saw less than a quarter percent change in the last cycle. Plus, another recrystallization could cause increased contamination. He needed to do a trial, but had no real way to test it, short of poisoning his coworkers.

He was neither a chemist or a biologist; just an engineer who happened to work for C Sec and occasionally had to go on patrol to keep his credentials active. He is the only one in the lab today, at least until T'Gegos decides that she could no longer stand looking at Medethis and tries, once again, to convince everyone that it was because he was incompetent, and not because she was annoyed that she was not looking at Lorius.

Medethis was certainly not incompetent, but he was a bit to Turian for his liking. Lorius is fine; he tempered his rebellious past, just barely, by using lines of sarcasm to address nearly everything while still exceeding expectations at work. Bassius is even better; his childhood piracy stories were just enough distraction for him to not go crazy trying to get the chemicals processed. He was straight-laced at work, but at least he was willing to relax a little bit. Medethis followed every rule to the letter and said nothing unless asked. Yes, Anoin was the same way, but he hated when everyone else was. He needed distraction and Medethis could not provide it because he was simply too Turian.

If Garrus could get a Batarian on the squad, then maybe things might move a bit faster, but that is a hypothesis that he could not prove.

Anoin sighs and retreats to the breakroom to see what he could listen to from some of the humans who were bound to be slacking off. No one ever minded the Salarian in the corner.

He grabs a bottle of juice and sits at one of the tables off to the side with a data pad with some nonsensical reports loaded onto it. No one ever minded a Salarian who appeared to be transfixed on a project.

He only got to listen in on a few stories. Nothing really of interest. News of a Turian ship arriving from Palaven. News that the Normandy was coming in for a couple of days tomorrow. News that breeding contracts were being accelerated for at least sixty Salarians on the Citadel—he should really check the status of his. News that Asari were being returned to Thessia to try and rehabilitate the ruins. News that Hughes in accounting came into work too hungover and had to be sent home. News that no one knew who was in charge of security for the Summit. News that prison security has been increased significantly in the past few months. News that so and so was expecting a child (he really was not paying attention to that). Nothing of interest and not even enough for a decent distraction.

"Why would security on the water stations be decreased?" This finally catches his attention.

"Not sure. Orders have been passed all the way from the top. Half patrols indefinitely." Anoin has met this Salarian in passing but never did get his name.

"But why? We have been seeing more activity with duct rats near the primary supply points." The human is Corporal Fornelli.

"Just not a concern. They can't steal too much water."

"Okay…but are we getting reassigned?"

"Unknown."

Anoin waits until they clear out before grabbing five cans of soda from the vending machine. He returns to his desk and tries mixing PDAT with his antidote. In water, the two mixed to make some harmless sugars.

He pours some of the PDAT and antidote into his soda and takes a sip. It is only slightly more bitter than usual, but he feels fine. He sets a timer for an hour and just sits back in his chair. He taps his fingers in a careful pattern, watching them for any changes in control.

The timer goes off; nothing has changed. He has not stopped breathing. He has not stopped moving in the slightest.

His squad mates return shortly there after.

"How did it go?" He asks politely.

"Eighteen arrests for petty crimes." Bassius answers as he takes his seat. "Shoplifting, extortion, and a case of blatant robbery. Nothing special."

"I will likely have these processed within the hour. What do you need me to do then?" Medethis directs at T'Gegos, his unofficial handler.

"You can go home then. No reason for you to stay late every day." She speaks coldly, despite the fair command.

"Why do you have so much soda on your desk? I thought you hated the stuff." Bassius asks as he stretches out and catches sight of Anoin's desk.

"Got distracted. Want some? Enough to go around." Anoin tosses a can his way before he can even accept the offer. He even tosses some towards T'Gegos and Lorius as well, which they accept with confusion.

"These aren't poisoned, are they?" T'Gegos asks, only partially serious.

"No more than usual." He is not lying. He is fine. They should be as well.

Medethis drinks quickly, drinking the whole can in a single gulp. The Salarian thought it was odd how quickly the Turian trusted them. Sure, they rescued him but he could not recall how he went missing in the first place. For all he knew he could be in captivity now. He was not free to live as he wanted to, nor as himself, but he was acting just fine. No sign of duress, nor of any annoyance. It was almost as if he could remain as First Lieutenant Ephentos Lorius indefinitely.

T'Gegos shrugs and drinks the can offered to her as she resumes her seemingly futile studies of the manifestos.

Bassius does a quick 'cheers' gesture toward the Salarian before drinking his can.

Anoin sits back and continues tapping his fingers. He can only hope that his physiology will be representative enough.


	53. Council Audience

Chapter 53

The Council members each stand at their respective podiums with only small pockets of onlookers for a quick meeting with the new commanding officer of the Normandy for a special meeting requested by Kaiden Alenko himself. As famous as the ship's crew was without the alien members of the crew its popularity had severely died down. Still, any news from the Normandy was well received and warranted a public audience if for anything other than to keep the success stories public.

Kaiden Alenko stands at the same spot where Shepard-Vakarian received her title as Specter, but with half the confidence. He was thrust into the role with limited fanfare and had yet to fulfill the expectations set for him. Vega stands just behind him, somehow looking even more uncomfortable with his role.

"Yes, Alliance strength is currently forty percent what it was pre-Reaper conflict. No, growth has not been as steady as projected but that was not our primary objective." Alenko strings a response together.

"Then what was your primary objective?" Tevos asks as she taps her fingers against her arm.

"We were focusing on re-allocating resources for the colonies. Following the Shepard protocols, we were visiting each colony for regular updates on viability and unusual interactions."

"The Shepard protocols?" Tevos raises an eyebrow towards the aforementioned council member, who maintains an indifferent look on her face.

"The protocols approved by the Council to address most issues that could arise as we rebuild, including loss of resources, weakening atmosphere, and so on. On the Alliance network we refer to this as the Shepard protocols for shorthand." He explains.

"Did we approve this?"

Sella perks up from her spot far off to the side. "Yes ma'am—it was approved over six months ago."

Before Tevos can fully extend her arm, Sella hands her a data pad with the files queued up. Sparatus and Valern also pull up their copies, preparing to look at whatever they are directed to. Shepard-Vakarian simply waits at her own podium, watching as the Asari frantically scroll through the information.

Alenko looks up towards Shepard-Vakarian, but cannot read her expression. Alenko instead quickly decides to continue. "The protocol has been straight forward and at this time has not caused any additional conflict. At this point, the only skirmishes that has occurred have been pirates trying to intercept transfers—about forty percent of the pirates surrendered and have been sent to work on mining projects in the Terminus systems. This was not outlined by the protocols, but rather suggested by Admiral Hackett as Purgatory has not been repaired yet—the highest security section is still functioning—as a way for public service to match any sentencing."

"Have the identities of pirates been released?" Shepard-Vakarian asks.

"Kept on a need to know basis on the planet, but it has been logged into both C Sec and Alliance records."

Sparatus pops back into the conversation. "Good work. There has been an overall decrease in piracy across all systems, but it will be a problem until all systems are stabilized. How have they been surrendering? Forty percent is unusually high."

"I am not sure."

"I'll have to look at the statistics later. If we can pinpoint what makes a crew more likely to surrender we should apply it. Do Alliance vessels have the capacity to record off ship interactions back online?" Sparatus asks.

"I am not sure."

Shepard-Vakarian interjects. "It is partially back online. Eighty percent of vessels have some degree of recording available, but the storage has been inconsistent. Only about forty percent of the interactions actually make it to file, but at least sixty percent of the surrenders have been stored and are available on the Alliance database. We can request to have them opened up to C Sec records, but I believe you have the ability to access the Alliance data if you need it."

"That will be satisfactory for now."

Tevos turns her focus back to the humans before her. "These protocols should never have been approved, let alone distributed to all Alliance vessels."

"And why is that?" Shepard-Vakarian directs.

"They were submitted by a provisionary Council representative and were not completely vetted by me."

"But she is a Council representative now and you did sign off on it before." Sparatus points out.

"Regardless."

Shepard-Vakarian sighs and redirects the conversation. "So why did you call this meeting Alenko?"

"Right. So as you should know, one of the objectives of the Shepard protocols was to monitor colonies with decreased atmospheric stability. In particular, we were monitoring Gei Hinnom as the ammonia concentration continued to increase as more resources were mined. At this point, there are still plenty resources available on the planet but the atmosphere is no longer suitable for human habitation."

"And why is this worth our attention? All species have lost colonies—we do not need to know about a single colony." Valern adds his first unique thought to the conversation.

"Yes but the conditions of that are nearly identical to that of Turvess."

Shepard-Vakarian lights up.

"Turvess?" Tevos searches for the relevant data quickly.

"The Raloi home planet. I requested that we look for a suitable planet to offer to them as their first colony. They had retreated to their home world and stalled all of their interstellar travel efforts because they felt that getting involved with the Council would have drawn the attention of the Reapers. If we offer them a planet to colonize, they will likely be willing to join." She explains.

"We never offer a species a planet to settle." Valern states.

"And every time a new species starts intergalactic travel, they end up in a war with at least one other species. This could be a bartering token to encourage peace and allow resources to be collected that would otherwise be unobtainable. Additionally, the atmosphere of Turvess is not dissimilar to Irune so Volus could be introduced to help adjust them to interspecies cooperation as well."

Tevos and Valern exchange glances.

"This will have to be discussed in more detail before proceeding. You may leave Major Alenko."

Alenko gives a polite nod before turning back with Vega tailing behind.

"Shepard-Vakarian, you are also dismissed while we discuss this further." Tevos adds as she leads the original Council members to their private chambers.


	54. Pizza

Chapter 54

Garrus leads the way into the apartment, with Alenko and Vega trailing behind. Vega carries all three gun cases, struggling to manage his shotgun along with Garrus's sniper rifle and Alenko's assault rifle. He activates the biometric locks on the door while the two humans continue chatting.

"Still, to be completely dismissed like that? I would think that we have earned more respect than that." Alenko remarks.

"Yeah, yeah, yeah—the Council should respect our decisions and humans have earned their position on the Council fair and square. You're starting to sound like a broken record man." Vega retorts from the rear.

"Starting to? It was a background chorus on the simulator." Garrus adds as he opens the door. "'Target down!' 'I'm just saying we deserved to at least be heard out.' 'Incoming in the rear!' 'And no one takes us seriously despite being the most decorated ship in the galaxy!'" He includes a falsetto approximation of Alenko's voice, but it is heavily altered by the subharmonics inherent in his voice to be barely recognizable as anything.

Vega gives a quick chuckle. "You are not allowed to do impressions Vakarian." He drops the cases against the wall with no care for even his own prized weapon. "You're on your own to get everything into the armory."

"You wouldn't mount it right anyways." He heads immediately to the kitchen and pulls steins out from above the stove. He glances back to the living room to find Shepard-Vakarian reading quietly on her datapad once again. Out of instinct, he grabs a mug to get tea started as he fills the steins up.

"We followed instructions to the letter and still get chewed out because someone forgot that it was one of our objectives." He continues. "If I get chewed out for failing to fulfill my role, that's on me. But if I get chewed out for someone else's error, or for simply forgetting what we have been assigned, I am not going to take it. I don't know how you did it for so long Shepard."

"I mused the idea of hanging up on them every time." She adds from the other room. "I'd get up but my center of gravity doesn't agree with me."

"I'm sure. Well you look good. Three more months?"

"Closer to three weeks."

"Wow. That's soon. Is the nursery set up yet?"

"I think so." She answers. "Down the hall and to the right if you want a peek."

Garrus freezes at the response, knowing she still has not looked at it.

"Before I go, I promise." He continues his rant. "We can't use the planet anyways so why would the Asari care what we do with it?"

"Here we go again." Vega rolls his eyes as he takes a swig.

"I'm serious. If the humans want to give a planet to the Raloi, what right does the Council have to stop us? And anytime we get any opposition it is from her."

"As much as you know my opinion on red tape, I am sure she thinks it's for the best." Garrus inputs as he hands the cup of tea to his wife. Alenko follows and makes himself comfortable on the sofa with his beer in hand.

"But it was already approved by her! It should have been a non-issue. And the way she tried to insinuate that you tried to sneak something past her!"

"It's fine. They are just looking for an excuse to edge me out anyways. I'm sure she is hoping to find some addendum after her approval happened. I already sent her my master files because I know she will question them."

"Has it gotten that bad?" Garrus asks.

"It isn't so bad. I just hope that Lia finds a suitable substitute in time."

"In time? Oh for your maternity leave?" Alenko asks.

Shepard-Vakarian shrugs. "Sure."

Garrus turns away to watch Vega rummage through the cabinets, letting Alenko quickly return to his rant.

"Where is all the food hiding?" Vega asks after he has exhausted all of the cabinets.

"We only have dextro food here." Garrus adds.

"Damn. I'm ordering pizza. They still deliver here?"

"You'll have to meet them in the lobby—extra security has been implemented."

"Works for me. Kaidan—pepperoni okay?"

"Sure. You guys want anything?"

"I'm fine."

"Add breadsticks for me." Shepard adds. "If they have dextro, fine, but otherwise standard is better."

"You sure you don't want anything Garrus?"

"I'm sure—I had a late lunch with the squad."

"Oh yea, how is that going?" Alenko finally gets off his tirade.

"We found the missing people but doing an extraction is too dangerous. I have a guy undercover but someone high up in C Sec is trying to build an army and they are mobilizing. They also have enough poison to contaminate the entirety of the station. We think we have an antidote but we don't exactly have a way to test it more than the dosage that the developer tried himself."

"You think they will make an appearance at the Summit?" Alenko asks.

"Most likely. I have a guy I like for it but I don't think I have enough to arrest and at his level I need to skewer him."

"But given all you know shouldn't you do everything you can to stop the guy? I mean almost every dignitary in the galaxy will be there." Vega points out.

"We are but there are too many hostages to gamble. The good news is that we have more and more leads each day. Hopefully at least one of them will nail him."

"Who is it? Maybe we can pay him a visit." Vega asks.

"Can't say. But if you could follow up on a lead I have on Noveria that would be great."

"Yeah, we can but what's on Noveria?" Alenko pipes in.

"He ordered brand new C Sec uniforms and armor for his army. I am hoping that he actually ordered from the factory."

"I'll take the Normandy out there tomorrow." Alenko confirms.

"Thank you—I knew I can count on you."


End file.
